Sign-up for our free weekly newsletterScience of Wisdom

Quimby's Letters to His Patients

Belfast, Nov. 4th, 1856

Madam:

Yours of the 2nd inst. was received, and
now I sit down to answer your inquiry in regard to your
lameness. It seems to me that the skin on the knee is thinner
and has a more healthy appearance. But you cannot be made to
believe anything that is in plain contradiction to your own
senses, and as your opinions have been formed from the evidence
of persons in whom you have placed confidence and facts have
gone to prove these opinions correct, it is not strange that you
should hold on to your belief till some kind friend should come
to your aid and lead your mind in a different direction.

Now to remind you of what I tried to make
you understand is a very hard task on my part; for as I said to
you, some of my ideas fall on stony ground, and some on dry
ground, and some on good ground. These ideas are in your mind
like the little leaven, and they will work till the whole mind
or lump is changed.

You have asked me many questions which
time and space will not permit me to answer, but I shall write
that which seems to be of the most benefit to you. In regard to
your coming to Belfast, use your own judgment. The cure of your
limb depends on your faith. Your faith is what you receive from
me, and what you receive is what you understand. Now if you
understand that the mind is the name of the fluids of which your
body is composed and your thoughts represent the change of the
fluids or mind, you will then be in a state to act
understandingly.

I will try to illustrate it to you so you
can apply your thoughts to your body so as to receive the reward
of your labor. As I told you, every thought contains a substance
either good or bad, and it comes in and makes up a part of your
body or mind; and as the thoughts which are in your system are
poisoned, and the poison has come from without, it is necessary
to know how to keep them out of your system so as not to be
injured by them.

Now suppose you have around you a sort of
heat like the light of a candle which embraces all your
knowledge, and your body being the centre and you having the
power to govern and control this heat, you then have a world of
your own. Now in health this globe of which your body is the
centre is perfect harmony. The heat of this globe is a
protection to itself, like a walled city, to admit none but
supposed friends. Now as every person has the same globe or
heat, each person is a world or nation of itself. This is the
state of a person in health.

Now as you wish to change and interchange
with other nations, so does our house like to enjoy the society
of other persons, and as we are liberal we admit strangers to
our city or world as friends. When this proclamation goes out,
our globe is filled with all sorts of people from all nations,
bringing with them goods, setting up false doctrines, stirring
up strife till the whole population or thoughts are changed, and
man becomes a stranger in his own land and his own household
becomes his enemies. This is the state of a person in disease.
Now as there is nothing in your own system of itself to disturb
you, you must look for your enemies from the strangers whom you
have permitted to come into your land.

Belfast, Jan. 10th, 1857

Mr. Thomas Millet Pelmgru

Dear Sir:

Yours of the 4th was received and would
say in reply to your enquiry that my opinion would be for your
wife to remain at home for a short time.

On another case, I intend to visit Bangor
in one or two weeks and while I am at Bangor I can take the case
and come to Newport and take a private team to your house and
return by the next train. This would be as long as I should wish
to stop and my expense would not be much. At any rate I would
not charge you more than two dollars above my expenses together.

If your wife should improve from that
visit, she could come to Bangor or to Belfast just as you think
best. I write in this way because I am partially engaged to go
to Bangor and if your wife was here in Belfast it would make it
very bad for her and I would feel very bad myself. Now if this
meets your ideas if you will leave word at the nearest point or
station where the train stops with someone to carry me to your
house, you could then carry me back to take the case so it would
not be much expense. The fare from Bangor to your place and back
you can ascertain, but if I don't go to Bangor I will let you
know, and in the meantime you can ascertain and let me know
which of the two would suit your wife best, to come here, or to
have me visit her.

N.B. The price I charge you would have
nothing to do with any other person. My charge is $3.00 but to
see your wife I would charge $2.00 over and above my expenses
from Bangor and back.

Yours truly,
P. P. Quimby

Portland, Feb., 1860

Mr. Editor:

I notice an article in your paper of the
third inst. in answer to Y.C. I have nothing to do with that;
but when a person sees fit to attack me as a sorcerer and
humbug, he had better look out for his own theory or house and
see if it is based on a sure foundation before he commences
throwing stones at outsiders, for he will be likely to break his
own windows and let in the cold.

Mr. J. seems to be troubled for the
safety of the good people of Portland and warns them against
mesmerism, sorcery and all sorts of humbug. Who art thou, oh
man, that judges another without any cause? Did you know by what
you measured to another it shall be measured back to you again?
Judge not that ye be not judged. If you know more about my
practice than I do, why did you not tell the people where the
deception is and enlighten them upon the subject; then you would
have done good to the sick. But you do not take the
responsibility upon yourself but, like a demagogue, you come
forward with a face of brass and an impudence that shows itself
in every word you say. That shows you are giving an opinion upon
what you have not the slightest knowledge, expecting the people
to take your bare assertion for truth. Why are you not honest
and say to the sick that they have not sense enough to know
whether they are benefited by me or not and that you have just
sense enough to see all through the humbug? For this is what you
mean.

Now the time is come when such oracles as
you will be weighed in the balance, and then you will receive
sentence according to your knowledge.

P. P. Quimby

Portland, Feb. 9th, 1860

[To a patient in Hill, N.H.]

Your letter apprised me of your situation
and I want to see if I could affect you. I am still trying to do
so, but do not know as I can without sitting down and talking
with you as I am at present. So I will sit by you a short time
and relieve the pain in your stomach and carry it off. You can
sit down when you receive this letter and listen to my story and
I think you will feel better. Sit up straight. I am now rubbing
the back part of your head and round the roots of your nose. I
do not know as you feel my hand, but you twist your arm as
though it felt rather queer, but it will make you feel better.
When you read this, I shall be with you; and do as I write. I am
in this letter, so remember and look at me, and see if I do not
mean just as I say. I will now leave you and attend to some
others that are waiting, so “Good evening.” Let me know how you
get along. If I do not write, I may have time to call for that
does not require so much time.

P.P.Q.

Portland, Feb. 9th, 1860

To Miss K., Kennebunk, Me.:

Your letter of the 5th is received. I am
surprised that you do not remember that all my patients have “a
cold” as they call it, when the belief is. For instance, if you
are told you have “consumption,” this belief is matter under the
direction of error, and as it is put into practice, it changes
the mind so that the idea of consumption is thrown off from the
belief. If you are excited by any other belief, you throw off
all the misery that follows your belief. For instance, you are
made to believe you are not so good as you ought to be. Your
belief puts restrictions on your life, and as it is a burden to
you, it makes you throw off a shadow that contains the
punishment of your disobedience. This makes you another
character, and you are not the happy child of Wisdom.

This was your belief when you called on
me. As I struck at the roots of your belief with the axe of
Truth, everything having a tendency to make you unhappy I tried
to destroy. So in the destruction there must be a change. This
change must be like its father. So if you had grief, it would
produce grief for the present. Finally the Truth would dry up
your tears and you would rejoice in that Truth that sets you
free.

So in regard to the “cold”; if you had
the idea of “consumption” when I drove that enemy of man out of
your belief, this must produce a like cough, but it is all for
the best. Remember that every error has its reaction, but an
unravelling of error leads to life and happiness, while the
winding it up leads to disease and misery.

All that is taking place in your case is
just what I anticipated. So it is all right. Keep up good
courage and all will come out right. Tell Miss F to keep good
courage. Her cure is certain.

P.P.Q.

Portland, March 21st, 1860

To Mrs. Wayne

Dear Madam:

Yours of the 19th is received and I was
very glad to hear I succeeded so well, but I was not
disappointed, for I felt sure I could raise you up. I will say a
word or two to you, Mrs. W. I was with you every little while
after I first wrote you till the time I named, and then it
seemed as though you were up so I left you. Now I shall drop in
and see you often so you may not be surprised to feel my
influence. Were there any ones at your house when you first got
up? If so let me know how long you had been sick and how long
since you walked. I shall be very glad. I think I shall make a
statement to the facts of your case; it is so remarkable that it
ought to be published for the benefit of the sick.

Yours, etc.

P.P.Q.

LETTER TO A PATIENT RECENTLY
HELPED

Portland, March 22nd, 1860

Dear Sir:

Your letter of the 21st is received and I
take pleasure in answering it. You must excuse me for addressing
Maria for I come to save her, while those who are well need no
physician. So Maria, I am glad to know you are getting along so
well. Since I received the letter I have visited you often and
shall drop in every day just after you take your meals and sit
by you and quiet your system so that your food shall sit well. I
shall visit you at night while you are sleeping in your bed and
use my influence to make you rest well so you will be able to
walk. You need not give yourself any fears of my forsaking you
nor leaving you in the hands of your enemies. I shall watch over
you till you are able to take care of yourself if my power is
able to do it. I should be glad to hear how you get along.

IN REPLY TO A YOUNG
PHYSICIAN

Portland, Sept. 16, 1860

Dear Sir:

Yours of the 5th is received, and in
answer I would say that it is easier to ask a question than to
answer it. But I will answer your question partly by asking
another, and partly by coming at it by a parable. For to answer
any question with regard to my mode of treatment would be like
asking a physician how he knows a patient has the typhoid fever
by feeling the pulse, and requesting the answer direct so that
the person asking the question could sit down and be sure to
define the disease from the answer.

My mode of treatment is not decided in
that way, and to give a definite answer to your inquiry would be
as much out of place as to ask you to tell me all you know about
the medical practice so that I could put it into practice for
the curing of disease, with no further knowledge independently
from what I get from you. You see the absurdity of that request.

If it were in my power to give to the
world the benefit of twenty years' hard study in one short or
long letter, it would have been before the people long before
this. The people ask they know not what. You might as well ask a
man to tell you how to talk Greek without studying it, as to ask
me to tell you how I test the true pathology of disease or how I
test the true diagnosis of disease, etc. All of these questions
would be very easily answered if I assumed a standard and then
tested all disease by that standard.

The old mode of determining the diagnosis
of disease is made up of opinions of diseased persons, in their
right mind and out of it, under a nervous state of mind, all
mixed up together, and set down accompanied by a certain state
of pulse. In this dark chaos of error, they come to certain
results like this. If you see a man going towards the water, he
is going in swimming, for people go in swimming. But if he is
running with his hat and coat off, he is either going to drown
himself or someone is drowning, and soon. This is the old way.
Mine is this.

If I see a man, I know it, and if I feel
the cold I know it. But to see a person going towards the water
is no sign that I know what he is going to do. He may be going
to bathe or may be going to drown himself. Now here is the
difference between the physician and myself, and this may give
you some idea of how I define disease.

The regular and I sit down by a patient.
He takes her by the hand, and so do I. He feels the pulse to
ascertain the peculiar vibration and number of beats in a given
time. This to him is knowledge. To me it is all quackery or
ignorance. He looks at the tongue as though it contained
information.

To me this is all folly and ignorance. He
then begins to ask questions which contain nothing to me,
because it is of no force. All this is shaken up in his head and
comes forth in the form of a disease to which he gives a name.
This is the diagnosis of a disease, which is all error to me,
and I will give you the diagnosis of this error.

The feeling of the pulse is to affect the
patient so he will listen to the doctor. Examining the tongue is
all for effect. The peculiar cast of the doctor's head is the
same. The questions, accompanied by certain looks and gestures,
are all to get control of the patient's mind so as to produce an
impression. Then he looks very wise, and so on. All the symptoms
put together show no knowledge but a lack of wisdom, and the
general credulity of mankind rendering liable to be humbugged by
any person however ignorant he may be, if he only has the
reputation of possessing all medical knowledge.

Now, sir, this is the field you are about
to enter, and you will find the hardest stumbling block from
diplomas. Greek and Latin and the like are all of no consequence
to the sick. It is impossible to give you even a mere shadow of
twenty years' experience. But I may be of some use to you. I
will say a word or two on the old practice (not taking much
time) that will answer all your questions on the old school, for
the less you know the better.

Watch the popular physician. See his
shrewdness. Watch the sick patient, nervous and trembling like a
person in the hands of a magistrate who has him in his power and
whose real object is to deceive him. See the two together, one
perfectly honest, and the other, if honest, perfectly ignorant,
undertaking blindfolded to lead the patients through the dark
valley of the shadow of death, the patient being born blind.
Then you see them going along, and at last they both fall into
the ditch.

Now, like the latter, do not deceive your
patients. Try to instruct them and correct their errors. Use all
the wisdom you have and expose the hypocrisy of the profession
in any one. Never deceive your patients behind their backs.
Always remember that as you feel about your patients, just so
they feel towards you. If you deceive them, they lose confidence
in you. Just as you prove yourself superior to them, they give
you credit mentally. If you pursue this course you cannot help
succeeding. Be charitable to the poor. Keep the health of your
patient in view, and if money comes, all well; but do not let
that get the lead.

With all this advice, I leave you to your
fate, trusting that the true wisdom will guide you—not in the
path of your predecessors. Shun evil and learn to do good.

P.P.Q.

A LETTER REGARDING A PATIENT

Portland, Sept. 17th, 1860

Dear Sir:

Yours of Aug. 27th was received after a
long journey through the state of Maine. I will give you all the
information that I am aware I possess.

If certain conditions of mind exist,
certain effects will surely follow. For instance, if two persons
agree as touching one thing, it will be granted. But if one
agrees and the other knows not the thing desired, then the thing
will not be accomplished.

For example, the lady in question wishes
my services to restore her health. Now her health is the thing
she desires. Her faith is the substance of her hope. Her hope is
her desire, it is founded on public opinion, and in this is her
haven, the anchor to her desire, public opinion the ocean on
which her barque or belief floats. Reports of me are the wind
that either presses her along to the haven of health or down to
despair. The tide of public opinion is either against her or in
her favor. Now, as she lies moored on the sea with her desire or
cable attached to her anchor of hope, tossed to and fro in the
gale of disease, if she can see me or my power walking on the
water saying to her aches and pains, “Be still,” then I have no
doubt that she will get better. The sea will then be calm, and
she will get that which she hoped for, her faith or cure. For
her faith is her cure and if she gets it, then her hope is lost
in sight and she no longer hopes. This is the commencement of
her cure. I, like Jesus, will stand at her heart and knock. If
she hears my voice or feels my influence and opens the door of
her belief, I will come in and talk and help her out of her
troubles.

P.P.Q.

TO A GENTLEMAN REQUESTING
HELP WITHOUT A PERSONAL INTERVIEW

Portland, Oct. 20th, 1860

Dear Sir:

In answer to your inquiry, I would say
that owing to the skepticism of the world I do not feel inclined
to assure you of any benefit which you may receive from my
influence while away from you, as your belief would probably
keep me from helping you. But it will not cost me much time nor
expense to make the trial. So if I stand at your door and knock,
and you know my voice or influence and receive me, you may be
benefited. If you do receive my benefit, give it to the
Principle, not to me as a man but to that Wisdom which is able
to break the bonds of the prisoner, set him free from the errors
of the doctors, and restore him to health. This I will try to do
with pleasure. But if this fails and your case is one which
requires my seeing you, then my opinion is of no use.

Yours, etc.

P.P.Q.

TO A CLERGYMAN

Oct. 28th, 1860

Dear Sir:

Your letter of the eighteenth was
received, but owing to a press of business I neglected answering
it. I will try to give you the wisdom you ask. So far as giving
an opinion is concerned, it is out of my power as a physician,
though as man I might. But it would be of no service, for it
would contain no wisdom except of this world.

My practice is not of the wisdom of man,
so my opinion as a man is of no value. Jesus said, “If I judge
of myself, my judgment is not true; but if I judge of God, it is
right,” for that contains no opinion. So if I judge as a man it
is an opinion, and you can get plenty of them anywhere.

You inquire if I have ever cured any
cases of chronic rheumatism. I answer, “Yes.” But there are as
many cases of chronic rheumatism as there are of spinal
complaint so that I cannot decide your case by another. You
cannot be saved by pinning your faith on another's sleeve.
Everyone must answer for his own sins or belief. Our beliefs are
the cause of our misery. Our happiness and misery are what
follow our belief. So as we measure out to another, it will be
measured to us again.

You ask me if I ascribe my cures to
spiritual influence. Not after the Rochester rappings, nor after
Dr. Newton's way of curing. I think I know how he cures, though
he does not. I gather by those I have seen who have been treated
by him that he thinks it is through the imagination of the
patient's belief. So he and I have no sympathy. If he cures
disease, that is good for the one cured. But the world is not
any wiser.

You ask if my practice belongs to any
known science. My answer is, “No,” it belongs to Wisdom that is
above man as man. The Science that I try to practice is the
Science that was taught eighteen-hundred years ago and has never
had a place in the heart of man since, but is in the world, and
the world knows it not. To narrow it down to man's wisdom, I sit
down by the patient and take his feelings, and as the rest will
be a long story, I will send you one of my circulars so that you
may read for yourself.

Hoping this may limber the cords of your
neck, I remain,

Yours, etc.
P.P. Quimby

Portland, Me., Dec. 27th,
1860

To Miss G.F.:

Your letter was received, and now I sit
down to use my power to affect you. I will commence by telling
you to sit upright and not give way to the pit of the stomach
but hold yourself up straight. If I felt that you saw me as
plainly while I am talking to you as I see you, then there would
be no use in writing, for you are as plain before my eyes as you
were when I was talking to the shadow in Portland. For the
shadow came with the substance, and that which I am talking to
now is the substance. If I make an impression on it, it may
throw forth a shadow of a young lady upright without that “gone
place” in the substance at the pit of the stomach. Now I am
looking into the second stomach, opening the outlet so that all
obstructions may be removed, also to prevent you from vomiting.

Remember that when I see you sitting or
standing in the position I saw you in at Portland, I shall place
one hand on your breast and the other on your hips and just
straighten you up. If you complain of the back, you may lay it
to me and I will be a little more gentle. You may expect me once
in a while in the evening. So keep on the lookout. See that you
have your lamp trimmed and burning so that when the truth comes
it shall not find you sleeping but up straight, ready to receive
the bridegroom. It seems that you understand this as I tell it
to you. But for fear you will not explain it to the shadow or
natural man, I will try to make you understand so it may come to
the senses of the natural man. If I succeed, let my natural man
know by a letter.

Yours, etc.
P.P.Q.

Portland, Me., Dec. 30th,
1860

To Mr. J.:

As your wife is about to leave for home,
I take this way of expressing my ideas of the trouble she is
laboring under, thinking you would like my opinion of her case.
I think her friends are not aware of her true state. Hers is
one of a very peculiar kind. She is not deaf in the strict sense
of the word, but her condition has been brought about by trouble
of long standing. When I say “trouble” I do not confine it to
any neglect on the part of her friends, but trouble when young,
which made her nervous. This caused her to become low-spirited,
till it has changed her system so that she is not the same
person she was twelve years ago. I have given my attention to
her general health, not to her deafness, for I think if she
should come right in her mental or physical condition as she
used to be, she would be well.

You can see and judge of her appearance
and buoyancy of mind. If you come to the conclusion that she
appears more like her former self, then I should think you would
not run much risk to send her back. For if you see any
improvement in her now, I think she will still improve to your
satisfaction.

It takes a long time to produce a change
in her system. To give you a full account of her case would take
a long time, so I will leave her to explain what I have
neglected to do.

Yours, etc.
P.P.Q.

Portland, Me., Jan. 2nd,
1861

To Mr. H. Hobson:

In answer to your letter, I must say that
it is out of my power to visit your place in person at this
time, from the fact that I have some thirty or more patients
here on my hands, but if there comes a slack time I will come
and let you know beforehand so you can meet me in Bangor.

Now a word or two to your wife. I will
try my best while sitting by you, while writing this letter, to
produce an effect on your stomach. I want you to take a tumbler
of pure water while I write this, and now and then take a
little. I am with you now seeing you. Do not be in a hurry when
you read this, but be calm and you will in a short time feel it
start from your left side and run down; then your head will be
relieved and you will have an inclination to rise. Be slow in
your movements so that your head will not swim around. I will
take you by the hand at first and steady you till you can walk
alone. Now remember what I say to you. I am in this letter and
as often as you read this and listen to it, you listen to me. So
let me know the effect one week from now. I will be with you
every time you read this. Take about one half hour to devote to
reading and listening to my counsel and I assure you, you will
be better. Now do not forget.

Yours, etc.
P.P.Q.

Jan. 11th, 1861

To Miss G.:

Your letter to Miss W. was handed to me
for perusal to see what course I thought best to take. So I will
sit down by you as I used to do and commence operations.
Excitement contracts the stomach, not from fright, but by being
overjoyed at your recovery and having a pretty good appetite;
the food digests slowly and it will make you feel a little
sluggish at times. But it will soon act upon your system and
produce a diarrhea, relieving you of the trouble in the water,
for that is only nervous and has nothing to do with the kidneys.
I will rub your head and work on your stomach while I write this
and when you are reading I will repeat the same till you are all
right.

Remember that I am with you when you read
this and every time you read this you will feel my influence. I
do not know that you feel it at this time 6-1-2 Wednesday night.
But I am with you now, knocking at your door, and if you do not
hear me when you get this message, open the door and I will come
in and sit and chat with you, if I do not get too cold waiting
out of doors. So keep this in remembrance of me, that is the
Science, till the cure comes.

P.P. Quimby

Portland, Jan. 13th, 1861

Mrs. Dingley:

I went to you as soon as I received your
letter but I cannot say you were aware of it. Now at the time I
write this, I am working on your stomach and now and then giving
you a little water so as to start this heat in your left side
that rushes up to your head.

When you receive this letter, at night
after you are through your work, just sit down in a chair and
take a tumbler of cold water and this letter. Read this letter
once or twice very slowly and in the meantime take a swallow of
water. When you get through, this water will cause a sensation
on your stomach and you will feel the wind moving in the stomach
and bowels. This will affect your whole system and cause a
sensation or perspiration opening the pores and throwing off
that heat that is confined in the pores and makes the humor.

Remember what I say. When you read this
letter I am with you, and just as long as you read this, I shall
be in the letter using my wisdom to cure you. I leave you now,
so good night.—9-12 o'clock Sunday evening—

P.P.Q.

Portland, Jan. 16th, 1861

Mrs. Aukee:

I sit down by you, although much hurried,
thinking that your face would grow rather long and you would
look down-hearted. It is Wednesday 7-1-2 evening, so please give
me your attention. I will relieve the pressure across the chest.
This will relax the stomach and you will hear these devils roar
up out of your mouth. Don't cough when it starts. As I am so far
away, by your unbelief, I do not know as you will feel my
influence till you receive this. If not, when you receive this
letter, seat yourself at evening, take a tumbler of water and as
you read this, take a little, and you will feel my influence in
you. Be about as long as when I was with you and after you have
read this, I will scratch your head as I used to, but you won't
have to comb your hair, for it is a spiritual scratch. You will
feel a glow all over you. This creates a circulation and you
will clear your head easier and speak better. As you read this,
remember me and I shall be with you till your voice comes.

Yours, etc.
P.P.Q.

Portland, Jan. 19th, 1861

Mrs. Wheeler:

Your letter of the 11th came to hand, but
for the want of time, I have been unable to write and I had
anticipated that I might help you by an examination of your
case. At the time I received your letter, I felt as though I was
with you, explaining to you your case. I will commence now on my
way, and as I always sit down by my patient and take them by the
hand, I will seat myself by you and commence telling your
feelings.

So give me your attention and listen to
what I say. The pain in your head arises from a nervous fear
which you do not understand. This nervous feeling affects you
when you are in company causing a contraction in the stomach
which creates a heat; this heat presses upon the aorta causing
your heart to beat. This causes a flash in your face, brings on
a heat all over it and produces a sort of faint or weak feeling.
The fear makes you give way at the pit of the stomach, confines
that heat there; this heat numbs the side, like leaning your arm
over a chair. This makes the side feel as though it was swollen,
and if you compare, you will find the shoulder a little fuller
than the other. When you lie on one side, it feels as though
there was a weight pulling you down. This you take for an
adhesion to the pleura, but it is in the fluids in the flesh.
This numbness is often taken for the lungs, but it is nothing
more or less than a nervous heat that heats the muscles at the
back of the neck and runs down the chest. This causes a
contraction of the chest. This contraction makes you give way,
like anyone in the hands of robbers attempting to bind him.

Imagine yourself in their hands and see
how you would try not to be bound. You would be in the position
of a fly in the foils of a spider. When the fly is buzzing, the
spider is still at a distance but draws in all the slack. So
this eternal error that man has invented and named consumption
binds his victim and then waits to see him try to break the
bands. It makes you nervous; this nervousness makes you cough.
When the stomach relaxes, the heat passes out of it; then it
affects the bowels, also the water, etc.

Now remember, all that the doctors tell
you is false. Your lungs are as sound as any one's, all that you
raise comes from your head. The heat presses over your eyes,
makes you feel sleepy and tries to escape out of the nose. The
cold comes in contact with it, just as the heat comes in contact
with the glass on the window; the cold meeting it condenses the
heat and forms a frost; then it melts and runs down. So the heat
met by the cold produces a chemical change in the head, like the
frost, and runs down into the mouth. This is called catarrh-that
which runs into the throat, bronchitis. This is all your
disease.

I will tell you what you must do. When
you receive this letter, I want you to be seated about eight
o'clock in the evening and take a tumbler of water. As you read
this letter, or someone reads it to you, I shall be working on
you. You take a little water now and then till you take a
tumbler full. I shall work on your side and you will feel
something like water run down. In a few days you will sneeze and
think you have taken cold. Do not be alarmed. You will be a
little sick at the stomach. Then it will work down and produce a
diarrhea. This will relieve the cough. If this comes out right
please let me know.

P.P.Q.

Jan. 25th, 1861

To Mrs. Ware:

By the request of Emma and Sarah I sit
down by you to see if I can amuse you by my explanation of
disease. You know I often talk to persons about religion and you
often look as though you would rather have me talk about
anything else. Perhaps it would be better, but if you knew the
cause of every sensation, then you would not want a physician.
Now you will want me to tell you how you feel and if you will
give me your attention I will try to explain. This heavy lazy
feeling that you have, accompanied with a desire to lie down and
sort of indifference how things go along, comes from a quiet
state of your system that prevents your food from digesting as
readily as it did while here. But it will act upon you like an
emetic or cathartic, either way is right. So give no care to
what you shall eat or drink, for that wisdom that governs all
science will cause all things to work for the best, and if you
want to eat, consult your own feelings and take no one's
opinion.

Remember that he who made us knows better
our wants than man. So keep yourself quiet and I will reverse
the action from your head and you will feel it passing out of
your stomach. Then do not forget to sit up as I used to tell you
and remember not to believe what the blind guides say for they
have a new mask. They will come to you and if your throat is a
little sore, as I have no doubt it will be from what I see for
when the food acts as a cathartic it most always makes the
throat sore, they will ask if you think this sore throat is the
diphtheria, looking as wise as though they had discovered the
philosopher's stone. The heat goes up to the head and tickles
the nose; then it condenses and runs down into the throat.

Remember what I tell you about this
disease, for these hypocrites or blind guides are working in the
minds of the people like the demagogues of the south till they
get up a disunion party. So keep on the lookout for these
deceivers. I do not say that you will be troubled with them, but
I have kept on their track for twenty years and have not the
slightest confidence in anything they say. Their wisdom is of
this world.

I hear you now, for the first time,
asking me if I believe in another world. Yes, but not in the
sense of the clergy. I will try to explain my two worlds. You
live in Chicago and I in Portland, and if it will not be
blasphemy to call your place heaven, we will suppose you are
there in heaven and I in Portland. Now, if I am here sitting and
talking with you I can't be on earth if your place is in heaven.
So I must leave the earth and the matter and come to you. Now if
I am with you, what is that that has left the body? It cannot be
matter in a visible form, yet it is something. Listen and I will
tell you. You read that God made all living things that had life
out of the earth so that dead matter cannot produce living life,
nor anything else; so all living life is matter in a form or out
of a form. As all matter decomposes, the dust or odor that
arises from it was the matter that man is formed of; this was
human life or man. As the child is of living matter, not wisdom,
when it grows to a certain age, it is ready to receive the
breath of eternal life.

I want to explain one word. I said the
child was living life, that is what I mean, not eternal life.
Eternal life is a wisdom, just as much above human life as
science is above ignorance. I think I hear you say what becomes
of the little child should it die before it arrived at the age.
It was made of the dust and shall return to the dust again, and
the dust of life. So what have you lost by the change? Nothing,
for it is still life, but sown in death or matter a natural
body, it rises a spiritual body. Why is it not seen by the
natural eyes? Because the natural man cannot discern spiritual
bodies. You can see a piece of silver dissolved by a galvanic
battery. Is it out of existence? No. Is it its natural self? No,
it is the spiritual self. Is it not as much yours as before? “I
do not know.” Well then reverse the poles of the battery or your
belief and you condense the silver into a solid, all but the
dross.

When a child is dead, as you call it, it
is dissolved, then raised into a spiritual form in the likeness
of its natural body. Why? Because it is free from sin or matter.
Then you may ask where is it? With its mother's heavenly man or
wisdom, and grows in wisdom like a plant or child till it is
ready to receive the wisdom of eternal life. Eternal life is
Christ or Science; this teaches us that matter is a mere shadow
of a substance which the natural man never saw nor never can
see, for it is not matter; it never changes; it is the same
today and forever.

This substance is the essence of wisdom
and is in every living form. Like a seed in the earth it grows
or develops either in matter or spirit just the same, and it is
much under the control of its mother's wisdom as the gold which
is dissolved and held in solution is under that of the chemist.
If the mother's wisdom is of this world, then the spiritual
child is not under her earthly care; but nevertheless, it is
held in the bosom of its eternal wisdom that will cherish it
till it is developed to receive the science of eternal wisdom.
Eternal wisdom and eternal life are not the same, for the latter
is not wisdom but living matter. Eternal wisdom cannot change
but acts on eternal life, changes its form and identity. Eternal
wisdom teaches us that all matter is to itself a shadow and is
no barrier to wisdom, and just as we are wise in one thing our
opinion vanishes. The shadow becomes transparent and nothing
remains but the memory of what was, but now is not.

Matter is dense darkness; spirit is
light. So, if you are wise your body or wisdom is light, and
just as you sink into error you become dense or dark. Therefore
let your light shine, so that when this cloud of wind comes
blowing round in the form of an opinion, you may know there is
something in it, only it is the noise of a demagogue. Believe
them not and you will live and flourish. If you can understand
this, you get the basis of my belief. For fear I have not made
my two worlds clear to your mind, I will say a few words more.

The two worlds may be divided in this
way: one opinions, the other science. Opinions are matter or the
shadow of science, both are eternal life but one is limited in
its sphere, and the other has no limits. One can be seen by the
natural eyes; the other is an endless progression. One is always
changing; the other is always progressing. The one is made up of
reason, opinions, judgment, and the other is science and is the
mystery of the latter. The natural man never will know one, for
he cannot see wisdom and live.

Wisdom is the natural man's death. So he
looks upon it as an enemy, prays to it, pays tribute to it as
though wisdom was a man. He often uses it as a balance to weigh
his ignorance in, but never to weigh the difference of his
opinions. He often quotes it, talking as though it were his
intimate friend, while he to wisdom is only known as a servant
or shadow, all of imitation and all the above is matter; science
is another character. Science rises above all such narrow ideas.
He who is scientific in regard to health and happiness is his
own law and is not subject to the laws of man except as he is
deceived or ignorant. For wisdom cannot let him disobey her
truth without knowing the consequences.

No one after he knows a scientific fact
can ignorantly disobey it. So that with science, the punishment
is in the act. But with man's laws it is different; the penalty
may follow the act or come after. With wisdom, the laws are
science. To know science is to know wisdom and how can a man
work a mathematical problem intelligently and at the same time
say he is not aware of the fact?

It cannot be done and so it is with every
act of our lives. If we know the true meaning of every word or
thought we should know what follows so that a person cannot
scientifically act wrong. But being misled by public opinion, we
believe a lie, so we suffer.

I have gone so far that I have reduced
certain states of mind to their causes, as certain as ever a
chemist saw the effect of a chemical change. For instance,
consumption. I know every sensation of its character and it is
as much a character as it ever had an existence. Its father or
author is a hypocrite and deceiver. I look upon it as the most
vile of all characters. It comes to a person under a most
flattering form, with the kindest words, always very polite,
ready to lend its aid in any way where it can get a hold. I will
illustrate this prince of hypocrites.

I will come in the form of a lady, for it
has many faces and characters. I enter as a neighbor with the
customary salutations and you reply that you are very well. “Oh
I am very glad, for I was expecting to find you abed by what I
heard. But you can't tell anything by gossip. You do not seem
quite as well as when I saw you last?” “Oh, yes, fully as well.”
“Well, you know there are diseases which always flatter the
patient, but you must keep good courage. I suppose you have
heard of the death of Mr. .” “No, when did he die?” “He died
yesterday but was sick a long time. Sometimes he thought he was
getting better, but I knew all the time he was running down. But
you must not get discouraged because you are like him, for it is
not always certain that a person in the same way as you has
consumption. So good morning.”

Here I make you nervous and you are glad
when I leave. Knowing I am not welcome in that form I assume
another character. I appear as a doctor; I sit down and count
your pulse, look at your tongue, take a stick and examine the
phlegm that you have raised. Then leaning back in the chair,
draw a long sigh, and ask if you have a pain in your left side.
Now I will not say but that the doctor is honest, but if he is,
it is worse for you. He is like a dog who wags his tail while
you feed him but when your back is turned will bite you. If
ignorance and superstition is to be put down by scientific facts
it is useless to mince matters. If a person is aiding an enemy,
he is as guilty as the thief.

I want you to know that every word that
is spoken is something, either matter or wisdom. Opinions are
made up of words condensed into a belief, so if I tell you that
you have congestion of the lungs, I impart my belief to you by a
deposit of matter in the form of words. As you eat my belief it
goes to form a disease like unto its author, it grows, comes
forth and at last takes form as a pressure across the chest.

The doctor comes to get rid of the enemy,
and by his remedies he creates another disease in the bowels.
This is done by giving some little simple thing. He begins to
talk about inflammation of the bowels; this frightens you. The
fright contracts the stomach so the heat cannot escape, and it
presses on the aorta at the pit of the stomach. This sets your
heart to beating, causes a flush in the face which you call a
rush of blood to the head.

It makes you feel sleepy and weak, as
though you must lie down; then the stomach relaxes and the heat
passes down into the bowels; this causes pains. You call it
“Inflammation.” All this is very simple if you know what caused
it. I will tell you.

Your situation is the cause. (At the time
you were lying on the sofa at your father's house, Judge Ware's,
while I was sitting by you I was aware of your situation, almost
to a certainty. I thought you knew it almost to a certainty for
you kept laughing. Don't you remember it? I guess you do.) As
your system changed it must produce a chemical change in your
breast, for the fluids must change. This would make you feel a
little nervous, which feeling would affect your head, making you
feel stupid and inclined to loll on the sofa. Finally it would
take away your appetite. All of this is not anything out of the
way. The sickish feelings are to act upon the stomach. This acts
on the bowels and if you will only drink water it will produce a
diarrhea which will carry off all nervous excitement, and your
health will be better than it has been for some time. This
letter is an essay for you to read, so good night. Let me know
how it works.

P.P. Quimby

Portland, Feb. 8th, 1861

To Mr. S.:

In answer to your letter I will try to
explain the color you speak of, if you have forgotten, so that
you will not forget it. Give me your attention while I explain.
You know I told you about your stooping over; this stooping is
caused by excitement affecting the head. this contracts the
stomach, causes an irritation, sending the heat to the head.
This heat excites the glands about the nose, it runs down the
throat and this is all there is about it. It will affect you
sometimes when you are a little excited, and you will take it
for a cold.

Remember how I explained to you about
standing straight. Just put your hands on your hips, then bend
forward and back. This relaxes the muscles around the waist at
the pit of the stomach. This takes away the pressure from the
nerves of the stomach and allays the irritation. Now follow this
and sit down and I will work upon your stomach two or three
times in three or four days. It will affect your bowels and help
your color. Tell your wife to sit down and give her attention
and I will affect her in the same way. Please take a little
water when you are sitting, say about 9 o'clock in the evening.

P.P.Q.

Portland, Feb. 8th, 1861

To Miss S., Hill, N.H.:

Your letter was received and I was sorry
to learn that you thought you took cold. Perhaps you did, but
you know all of my patients have to go through the fiery furnace
to cleanse them of the dross of “this sinful world,” made so by
the opinions of the blind guides. Remember that passage where it
says, “Whom the Lord loveth he chasteneth.” As Truth is our
friend, it rids us of our errors, and if we know its voice we
should not fear but receive it with joy. For although it may
seem a hard master, nevertheless it will work out for you a more
perfect health and happiness than this world of error ever
could. So listen to it and I will try to set all things right.

Of course you get very tired, and this
would cause the heat to affect the surface as your head was
affected; the heat would affect the fluids, and when the heat
came in contact with the cold it would chill the surface. This
change you call “a cold.” But the same would come about in
another way. Every word I said to you is like yeast. This went
into your system like food and came in contact with the food of
your old bread or belief. Mine was like a purgative, and acted
like an emetic on your mind so that it would keep up a war with
your devils, and they will not leave a person, when they have so
good a hold as they have on you, without making some resistance.
But keep up good courage and I will drive them all out so that
you may once more rejoice in that Truth which will free you from
your tormentors or disease.

If you will sit down and read this
letter, take a tumbler of water and think of what I say, and
drink and swallow now and then; I will make you sit up so you
will feel better. You must be just about as long as you used to
be in Portland. Try this every night about nine o'clock. This is
the time I shall be with Mr. and Mrs. S. You know that where two
or three are gathered together in the name of this Truth, there
it will be in your midst and help you. So try it and see if it
does help you. If you do, let me know.

Hoping this letter will be of some
comfort to you and the rest, I remain your true friend and
protector till you are well, if I have the Science to cure you.
So I leave you for the present and attend to others.

P.P.Q.

Portland, Feb. 9th, 1861

To Mr. Sprague,

Your wife's letter was received, and I
was glad to learn you were all so much better. But your wife
says you still cough; this is necessary for your cure, for you
have no other way to get rid of that heat in the head called
catarrh. Now, this heat seems to be a mystery to everyone;
everybody acknowledges it and tries to account for it.

Some call it nervous, but when asked to
explain that, they fly to some other error.

You know I told you that mind was
spiritual matter. In order to illustrate my meaning so you will
understand it, I will make use of an illustration that Jesus
used. He said, when the skies are red, you know it will be fair
weather. Now thought is something and this acts in space. For
instance, the body is nothing but a dense shadow, condensed into
what is called matter or ignorance of God or Wisdom. God or
Wisdom is all light. Your identity acts in these two elements,
light and darkness, so that all impressions are made in this
darkness or ignorance, and as the light springs up, the darkness
disappears. One of these elements is governed by Wisdom, the
other by error, and as all belief is in this world of darkness,
the truth comes in and explains the error. This rarefies the
darkness and the light takes its place. Now as this darkness is
all the time varying, like the clouds, it is necessary that man
should be posted about it as he would about the weather. For the
wisdom of man has got so far from the truth that even the
weather is our enemy, so that we step out as though we were
liable to be caught by a cold, and if we are then comes the
penalty. All this error arises from ignorance. So to keep clear
of error is to know who he is, how he gets hold of us, and how
we shall know when he is coming.

To make you understand I must come to you
in some way in the form of a belief. So I will tell you a story
of someone who died of bronchitis. You listen or eat this belief
or wisdom as you would eat your meals. It sets rather hard upon
your stomach; this disturbs the error or your body, and a cloud
appears in the sky. You cannot see the storm but you can see it
looks dark. In this cloud or belief you prophesy rain or a
storm. So in your belief you foresee evils. the elements of the
body of your belief are shaken, the earth is lit up by the fire
of your error, the heat rises, the heaven or mind grows dark,
the heat moves like the roaring of thunder, the lightning or hot
flashes shoot to all parts of the solar system of your belief.
At last the winds or chills strike the earth or surface of the
body; a cold clammy sensation passes over you. This changes the
heat into a sort of watery substance which works its way to the
channels and pours to the head and stomach.

Now listen and you will hear a voice in
the clouds of error saying, The truth hath prevailed to open the
pores and let nature rid itself of the evil I loaded you down
with in a belief. This is the way God or Wisdom takes to get rid
of a false belief. The belief is made in the heavens or your
mind; it then becomes more and more condensed till it takes the
form of matter. Then Wisdom dissolves it and it passes through
the pores, and the effort of coughing is one of Truth's
servants, not error's; error would try to make you look upon it
as an enemy. Remember it is for your good till the storm is over
or the error is destroyed. So hoping that you may soon rid
yourself of all worldly opinions and stand firm in the Truth
that will set you free, I remain your friend and protector till
the storm is over and the waters of your belief are still.

P.P.Q.

Portland, Feb. 10, 1861

Miss Elizabeth Brackett:

Owing to a press of business, your letter
of Jan. 10th has not been answered, but I have made you a number
of calls and find you better, and I shall visit you at times
till you get over your troubles. Sometime I may explain to you
how you became frightened, but as it will not alter the case
now, it will need no explanation. Perhaps you will remember it
yourself. I feel as though you would get well, so let me know
how you are getting along. I am getting quite interested in your
case and want to know if I understand it. I believe that if
persons believe in the truth, it will teach them that although
they may be absent from one another in the body, yet they may be
present and feel each other's feelings. So if you will seat
yourself in a chair on Thursday eve at nine o'clock, I will sit
down by you and make you feel sleepy, cause the heat to pass
down from your face and make you feel very well. If you
experience any sensation, let me know; and if you remember how
you feel at this time 9 o'clock Sunday eve, please name it.

It seems as though you were enjoying
yourself, so I will bid you good night.

P.P. Quimby

Portland, Feb. 14th, 1861

To Mrs. H. Merrill:

Owing to a press of business your letter
has remained unanswered, but when I receive a letter I always
feel as though I was with the patient giving them advice.
Sometimes I am in doubt whether I see or know who they are from
the fact that so many come to me when I put myself in
communication with the sick.

I make a sort of general visit as I used
to when you were all in my office, but if I feel certain of one,
I make that one a text to preach from. So I believe that if you
can make yourself known to me by your faith, I can feel you.

Since I commenced writing, you have come
up before me, so that I now recall you perfectly well and I will
give my attention to you. I have often seen you and used my
arguments to convince you of this great truth. When I say this
truth, I mean this light that lighteth everyone that understands
it. When I first sat by you, my desire to see you lights up my
mind like a lamp; and as the light expands, my senses being
attached to the light, each particle of light contains all the
element of the whole. So when the light is strong enough to see
your light in your darkness or doubts, then I come in harmony
with your light and dissipate your error and bring your light
out of your darkness. Then I try to associate you with matter as
a substance that is separate and apart from your light or
senses.

Man of himself is in matter. Science is
out of matter. Disease is matter, health is out of matter so
that you, i.e., science, cannot receive matter into your
science, but your science can separate itself from matter.

So do not try to get out of your trouble
and believe in the cause, for you cannot serve God and man or
science and error. The opinion is the matter and the aches and
pains are what follows your embracing it. So to say you do not
believe in disease, and yet complain that you have one, is like
saying that you do not believe in ghosts and telling the largest
ghost story, declaring it is true.

P.P. Quimby

Portland, Feb. 23, 1861

To Mrs. Smith:

I was sorry to hear by your letter that
your husband was more feeble. There is a time when all things
must fail and it seems as though this would be so in the case of
your husband, but I hope not. I have tried all in my power to
carry him through that place, and if he had sunk when he first
came to Portland, I should not have been surprised. Seeing him
so nervous and in so critical a condition kept me in a very
unpleasant situation. To voice my true feelings, he would have
failed at once. So as a last resort, I was obliged to drive from
myself all doubts of his not getting worse and see if I could
produce any effect.

As this seemed to take a favorable turn,
I never had a time that I dared to think otherwise than that he
would get well. So things went on, doubts and fears on one side,
and a powerful effort on my part to keep him up till I felt it
would be best for him and you that he should return. If his
strength was from me, he must fail at last; but if he could
rally of himself then I felt as though, between us both, he
might come up.

It is very unpleasant to be placed in
such a situation. Knowing how little of a sea or swell it takes
to upset our bark, I have to sit and paddle along in breathless
silence lest some little billow may upset all my labors. This
was the way in your husband's case. If he had been at home where
all things could have been otherwise, I should not have had so
many fears, but we must take the world as we find it and make
the best of it.

Now as I sit here writing, I cannot leave
the helm of his mind to even indulge in the idea of losing him,
nor shall I till that enemy of life tears him from my grasp. If
the [missing word] sets in, I shall have some more hope. I shall
visit often and use my best effort for his recovery. So I cannot
say anything different from what I want should take place. You,
as I have always said, can have your own opinion. Hoping next
time I hear I shall receive more favorable accounts, I remain,

Yours, etc.
P.P.Q.

Feb. 23, 1861

To Mrs. Cole:

Your letter of the 12th was received just
as I was leaving for Belfast and upon my return I was sick, so
this is the first time I have had to reply.

What you say about your child must take
place, for you remember what I told you about his chest, how
full it was. This fullness was a deposit of heat that forced
itself through the lungs and pores to the surface and affected
the muscles around the chest. This made him nervous and caused
the heat to go to his head, as it did in your case; this heat
was the cause of your color and his asthma.

Now when this passes down, it will
condense into water and pass off in a diarrhea. So although it
may seem as though your child was worse, it seems to me that he
ought to get well, for he could never recover while this heat
went to his head. Let him drink cold water and I cannot help
feeling that a change must take place before long. You know how
it was with you.

To reverse the action is not a very easy
task, but if you wait patiently, I can't help thinking it will
take place. I remember the case well, and shall, at intervals,
use my power to correct the error. Hoping you may see some
favorable effect soon, I remain, etc.

P.P.Q.

March 3rd, 1861

To Miss G.:

I will now sit down and put on paper what
I did at the time I received your letter. I went to you at that
time and have visited you at times ever since. I wish now to let
you know that I am still with you, sitting by you while in your
bed, encouraging you to keep up good spirits and all will go
right. If you cough, it is to get rid of the heat that has gone
to your head and when it condenses it runs down into the throat
and you cough it up.

P.P.Q.

Portland, March 3rd, 1861

To Mrs. L.A. Burns,

I went to your relief on reading your
letter and have visited you at intervals ever since. At this
time I am sitting working on your stomach to make the heat pass
down, and if you are affected, you must lay it to me. The pain
you have in the bowels is all right, it shows that there is an
action, it will relieve the left side. Your head I shall give a
good rubbing, especially the back part of it. It won't bother
you to comb your hair as it is short. I shall remember you and
make you frequent calls.

P.P. Quimby

Portland, March 3rd, 1861

To Mrs. D.:

In answer to your letter I will say that
you know I told you that your disease was in your mind. Now your
mind is your opinion, and your opinion is that you have
scrofulous or cancerous humour.

This opinion is something or it is
nothing, and as it shows itself in your system, it must be
something. I call it matter. As I change this something or
opinion, it must change the effect. So as the effect is changed,
the matter or mind or opinion is changed. In the change it will
produce these feelings because it is in the fluids. As - this
change goes on it must affect your head and also your side, and
it ought to affect your stomach. This will bring on a phenomenon
like a cold, and finish with a diarrhea. This carries off all
the false ideas and relieves your system of that bloat and heat.
Keep up your courage. It is all right.

P.P.Q.

Portland, March 3rd, 1861

To Mr. R.:

When your letter was received, I went to
your relief, but I cannot say that I affected you. But now I
will sit down and try to affect your stomach so that you will
not want to smoke. I feel that if you were aware of the evil
influence of the enemy that is prowling around you enticing you
to smoke, you would not harbor him one moment but hurl him from
you as you would a viper that would sting you to the heart. I
know that opinions are something and they are our friends or our
enemies. So the opinion you have of smoking is a false one and
is an enemy to you. It is subtle like the serpent that coils
around you till you feel its grasp around your chest, making
your heart palpitate and sending the heat to your head. Then you
will struggle to rid yourself of his grasp, till overpowered,
you become paralyzed. He will laugh at your folly when your fear
cometh. Remember that “love casteth out fear,” and fear hath
torment. Science is love. Fear is disease; torment is your
reward. So watch lest he enter your house while you are asleep
and bind your limbs, and when you awake find yourself bound hand
and foot. So remember what I say to you as a friend.

P.P.Q.

Portland, March 3, 1861

To Miss T.:

Your letter of the first was received....
I will now give you a short sitting and amuse you by my talk.
But as you seem to want your head cured I will rub the top of
it, and while doing this, I will tell you what makes it feel so
giddy. You know I have told you, you think too much on religion
or what is called religion. This makes you nervous, for it
contains a belief which contains opinions and they are matter;
i.e. they can be changed. If opinions were not anything, they
could not be changed, for there would be nothing to change. All
religion is of this world and must give way to Science or Truth;
for truth is eternal and cannot be changed. . . . So you see
according to the religious world I must be an infidel. Suppose I
am. I know that I am talking to you now. Does the Christian
believe in this (talking with the spirit)? No. Here is where we
differ.

Eighteen hundred years ago, there was a
man called Jesus who, the Christians say, came from heaven to
tell man that if he would conform to certain rules and
regulations he could go to heaven when he died; but if he
refused to obey them, he must go to hell. Now of course the
people could not believe it merely because he said so, so it was
necessary to give some proof that he came from God. Now what
proof was required by the religious world? It must be some
miracle or something that the people could not understand. So he
cured the lame, made the dumb speak, etc. The multitude was his
judge and if they could not account for all that he did was
proof that he came from God. So after he had cured many people
they decided that he did come from God.

Now does it follow that if I should say
that I was the Son of God or even go so far in my supposition as
to believe that I was God himself, that they would make it so?
Or suppose I should say I will give some proof that I am really
God and I should perform a sudden cure which the people really
believed, is their belief to embrace the idea that I am really
God or that I really cured the person? You may answer this.

A phenomenon is one thing and the way in
which it is done another.

The spiritualists produce phenomena, but
when they say it is from the spirits of the dead, that is an
opinion. Now let me give you my opinion.

There was once a man called Jesus. I have
no doubt that he cured, but his cures were no proof that he came
from God any more than mine does, nor did he believe it.

This man Jesus was endowed with wisdom
from the scientific world or God and not of this world, nor can
he be explained by the natural man. His wisdom never taught any
such thing. His God fills all space. His wisdom is eternal life,
with no death about it. He never intended to give any
construction to his cures or words. His cures were for the
benefit and happiness of man. Men were religious from
superstition, their religion was made of opinions, and they were
the light of the mind; the opinion or light contained an idea
and the idea was in the center of the light. When the idea is
lit up, it throws its ray; and our senses, being in the rays,
are affected by the idea or light.

As their ideas affected the people, they
were like burdens grievous to be borne; so the people murmured.

Jesus knew all this and no man was able
to break the seal or unlock the secret to health. So the people
groaned in their trouble and prayed to be delivered from their
evils. Wisdom, hearing the groans of the sick, acted upon this
man Jesus and opened his eyes to the truth. Thus the heavens
were opened to him. He saw this Truth or Science descend, and he
understood it. Then came his temptation; if he would listen to
the people and become king, they would all receive him. This he
would not do. But to become a teacher of the poor and sick would
be very unpopular. Here was the temptation. He chose the latter,
and went forth teaching and curing all sorts of diseases in the
name of this Wisdom, and calling on all men everywhere to
repent, believe, and be saved from the priests and doctors who
bound burdens on the people.

I should like to write much more but for
the want of time must close.

P.P. Quimby

Portland, March 10th, 1861

To Mrs. W.:

I have not been able to answer your
letter until now. But I have often scratched your head and
talked to you. How much you have been aware of it, I cannot say.
But I now see you and your husband sitting looking as easy as
possible. I shall visit you as an angel, not a fallen one, but
one of mercy, till you are able to guide your own bark.

It is true your husband can travel the
briny deep, but he has never entered this ocean of this higher
state. Here our senses are attached to our belief and our belief
makes our bodies or barks. The sea is troubled, error is the
rocks and quicksands where we are liable to be driven by the
cross-currents while the wind of error is whistling in our ears;
and when your bark is creaking and twisting from stem to stern,
it is liable to go to pieces. Now keep a good lookout and you
will see breakers ahead. So brace up and see that your compass
is right. Keep all snug and fast. Remember what I told you about
this place, not to lose control of yourself, but stand on deck
and give your orders, not in a whining way, but bold and
earnest. Then your crew will obey you and you will steer clear
of all danger and land safe in the port of health. Then enjoy
yourself with your husband, talking over your old sea voyage,
and I will sit down with you and listen to your story. So I will
leave you and your husband together.

P.P. Quimby

March 10th, 1861

To Miss S:

In answering your letter I will say that
I have used my best efforts to help you, and I feel as though I
had. Now I will once more renew my promise not to forsake you in
your trouble, but to hold you in the influence of this great
Truth that is like the ocean. While your bark is tossed by the
breeze or storms of error and superstition, while the skies are
dark with error and you are moved by your cable or belief,
feeling as though you may be blown on to the rocks of death, you
may look to that Truth that is now beating against the errors
and breaking them in pieces, scattering them to the winds and
even piercing the hardest flinty hearts, grinding them into
pieces. This Truth shall shine like the sun and burn up all
these errors that affect the human race.

So be of good cheer and keep up your
courage, and you shall see me coming on the water of your belief
and saying to the waters or pain, “Be still,” soothing you till
the storm is over. Then when the sun or Truth shall shine, and
the pure breeze from heaven spring up, slip your cable and set
sail for the port of health, there to be once more in the bosom
of your friends. Then I will shake hands with you and go
exploring for some other bark that is out in the same gale.

P.P. Quimby

March 10, 1861

Miss Brackett, Boston, Mass.:

Owing to a press of business, I have not
had time to answer your letter until now, but I often see you
and talk to you about your health. I feel as though I had
explained to the spiritual or scientific man the cause of your
trouble which I may not have made plain in my letters to the
natural man, but it may sometime come to your senses or you may
see me. Then I can tell you what I cannot put on paper. As for
the cause affecting you now, I feel as though I had removed the
cause, and the effect will soon cease and you will be happy and
enjoy good health. I wait to hear that my prophecies have been
fulfilled, but I shall keep a look out for your health till I
hear you say that you are well.

P.P.Q.

Portland, March 28, 1861

To Mr. G. Cleanes:

Your letter of the 25th was received
enclosing $2.00 for my advice. It is true that a person cannot
afford to spend his time for nothing, but at the same time to
give the public the idea that the cures can be made by letter
opens the door for deception. For the sick are, of all classes,
most easily humbugged since they are honest and expect others to
be the same.

A person well is not a person sick. The
well have no charity for the sick, and when one gets sick, he is
like a man in the hands of robbers. If he does not look out,
they will rob him of all he had, for a sick man will give all he
has to be saved from disease. So they are easily deceived, and
as I do not intend to open a door for these robbers to enter and
rob the sick, I put myself into the hands of the sick instead of
having the sick at my mercy. In the latter case, I do not know
what I might be led to do. If this way has the effect I think it
will, I am satisfied.

If I can get the good will of my
patients, I can help them at a distance, but this is a theory of
my own. From what I have done I know that the principle is true,
so upon this principle I am going to try the theory for the
benefit of mankind. If I succeed, I shall establish one thing
that I wish to establish, that is, that the sick shall never run
any risk of losing their money by trusting to any person for a
cure, either by medicine or by letter or by spiritual
communication or by any other way, unless the doctor will run
the same chance.

It is what every honest person will do
for a theory that he has confidence in. I therefore return your
money, leaving it till I have tried my best and accomplished my
object; then if you please to send it to me, I will receive it
as a gift, not as a fee.

I will now sit down by you and take your
feelings as they seem to me. The gone feeling or quivering at
the pit of your stomach is caused by the contraction of the
stomach on the left side. This creates a heat, and as the heat
spreads in the stomach, it produces a sort of numbness around
the left side, near the heart. At any excitement, the heat
passes on the aorta, causing the heart to flutter and beat hard.
This goes to your head and causes a dull heavy feeling over the
eyes, like a sleepy feeling, and causes your hands to go to
sleep as though they were resting on something.

Now sir, you may not think I have told
you all, but perhaps you do not recognize the feelings I have
told you of, but they are so, for I know it. Now sir, disease is
like a thief or robber that enters your house or mind while you
are asleep or ignorant of the cause, and it uses all the means
in its power to decoy the person to death. So it tempts you by
your tobacco to give way to your feelings in order that it may
have you in its power. It is subtle, and, it seems like your
best friend, but it is a viper in your stomach lying wait to
poison your life while you can't help yourself.

I feel that it is working on your system
by the queer feeling in your mind, so I know that you are very
nervous, and strange feelings pass through your brain when you
rub your head. Sometimes you feel your heart beat, and a
suffocating feeling comes over you as though you wanted more
air. Then comes the idea of heart disease or apoplexy. This is
the effect of the tobacco. Then when it passes out of the
stomach it condenses into water, causing you to pass a large
quantity at times, then less. Now sir, if I am right in regard
to your case, I think I can cure you. If you will let me know
the effect, I will continue my visits mentally. If you see fit
to show this to any person, I will say that I answer no letters
without the person first showing his confidence in me. Then if I
deceive him, he is at liberty to expose me. I will try to affect
you till I hear from you.

P.P.Q.

Portland, Apr. 10th, 1861

To Mrs. Strong:

In answering your inquiry, I am not
inclined to give a decided opinion in any case, for an opinion
involves more responsibility than I am willing to take. Moreover
an opinion is of no force as far as knowledge goes and it might
do a great deal of harm and mislead you to put a false
construction on what I might say. I always feel as though
disease was an enemy that might be conquered if rightly
understood, but if you let your enemy know your thoughts, you
give him the advantage. Therefore I never give the sick any idea
that should make them believe that I have any fears, nor will I
reason with myself, for my reason is my guide. Making health the
fixed object of my mind, I never parley or compromise. Once when
your sister remarked that she never expected to be perfectly
well, I replied that I never compromised with disease. And as
she had been robbed of her health, I should not settle the case
except on condition of the return of her health and happiness.
Here she stands.

I will now say a word or two so you can
see how I feel; when I really believe that I cannot destroy a
disease, I always take the easiest possible way to induce the
patient to return home of their own accord with the idea that
they will do just as well as if they stayed longer. This is my
mode of dismissing my patients and as I send away patients who I
know will recover, the sick cannot see any partiality and they
all leave in good spirits. When I feel as though a patient might
get well but for circumstances which they cannot control which
bear on their mind, if I think by lessening their burdens and
anxieties I can effect the cure, that I do in this way. When
your sister came to me I found her in a very nervous state, from
the fact that she had lost her sister and expected soon to
follow her. This made her very nervous and stimulated her to
that degree that she appeared to be quite strong. As I relieved
her fears, she became more quiet; this she took for weakness,
but every change has come just as I told her it would. Like all
who are sick, she looks at the expense, and as I felt very
anxious to help her, I was willing to take the responsibility
upon myself of telling her that I would like to have her remain
and I would make no charge for my services but would wait till
the cure was performed. This would relieve her of calling on her
friends for funds to pay me and I find she feels happier and
easier. You will see that I have no interest in keeping your
sister here, and as long as she remains, I shall take as good
care of her as though she were my own child.

P.P. Quimby

Portland, Apr. 11, 1861

To Miss L. H. Mead:

I will now sit down by you as I used to,
for I see I am with you, and talk to you a little about your
weak back. You forget to sit upright as I used to tell you.

Perhaps you cannot see how I can be
sitting by you in your house and at the same time be in
Portland. I see you look up, open your eyes and hear you say,
No, I am sure I cannot, and I do not believe you can be in two
places at the same time. Now listen and I will try to convince
you that I can be here with you and at the same time be in
Portland.

You remember when Jesus was journeying
one day, he said to his disciples, our friend Lazarus is sick.
We must go to him. How did Jesus know that Lazarus was sick? You
need not ask me if I compare myself to Jesus; that is not
answering the question. The question is simply this. Do you
believe that Jesus knew the fact or did he guess at it? I hear
you think, not speak, “I cannot say.” No, you cannot say
intelligently, for if you could, you would not doubt that I am
now talking to you. But your faith is like that of Lazarus; it,
needs more faith and Jesus knew it, or he would not have gone to
the idea or body. Neither was Mary's or Martha's faith enough to
raise him, so he had to go or do what was the same, for they
could not believe in what they could not see; therefore he had
to attach his senses to what they could see, Jesus; then they
could see that Jesus could raise Lazarus. Now if your faith is
no stronger in P.P.Q.'s truth or Christ than Lazarus' and his
sisters' was in Jesus' Wisdom or Christ, then I fear your back
will remain unrelieved, for I am too busy to go in bodily form.
But I have faith to believe that I can make you believe by my
wisdom, so I shall try to convince you that although I may be
absent in the idea or body, yet I am present with you in the
mind.

Suppose I am in Portland and you feel and
know that I am here with you, where do you and the people in
Portland differ in opinion? You say I cannot tell. I will tell
you. The people, attaching their senses to P.P.Q. think wisdom
is in him, but if you know that I am here, you attach your
senses to the Christ or truth. And if you believe this, you are
saved from the uncertainty of seeing me in the body, that I may
tell you what I am now saying. While I have been sitting and
talking, I have been trying to affect you and I feel as though
you would be better. Hoping this will be so, I leave.

P. P. Quimby

Portland, Apr. 24, 1861

To Mrs. Bosworth:

Owing to my business I have delayed
writing until now. I generally seem to see a patient when I read
a letter, but sometimes I do not. This I account for on the
principle that the errors obscure my sight. Light is something
outside and independent of matter, which is so associated with
matter that it has become attached to it. But in its pure
operation, it sees through matter in its various combinations.
Common education has placed a barrier between two persons; for
instance, you and myself. This barrier is matter and can be seen
through by intelligence superior to it. I will try to
communicate with you, that is that part of you which sees and
hears, etc., and is really independent of time and space but
which is not known by that part of us that depends on the eye to
see or the ear to hear or through those organs to be affected
and realize a sensation or fact. This I call your wisdom or
senses and they are imprisoned by the errors of common belief.
This belief is yourself and acts upon your matter or body. It is
under the direction of ideas or opinions of persons who never
knew there was an intelligence independent of your body. You,
being under their influence and finding no friend to lead you
away from them, fall into the snares of their make and almost
wholly believe in everything they say. Now I wish to talk with
that part that does not believe in what these friends say, be
this part ever so small or well concealed.

This disinclination to receive the
opinions of your friends is founded on a truth, that is, that
there is not a word of truth in what they say; it is all based
on guesswork. All this is mere assertion on my part and of
course needs proof to substantiate it. So if I can make myself
felt by you without the common medium through which we know each
other, that will show that we can act independently of that
medium. I therefore will now try to dissolve the error,
misbelief, and see if I cannot make myself felt by you. So if
you hear my voice and are a little nervous, do not put a false
construction on it by being frightened and closing the door of
your belief so that I cannot enter and talk with you a little
upon the idea that the world has established and imprisoned your
wisdom in. If I can convince you that your friends are your
enemies, then you will know how to treat them.

It is an old saying, deliver us from our
friends. These friends, Christ pictured out better than I can
do, so I will use his own illustration for he warned his
disciples against them. He says beware of the Scribes and
Pharisees, that is the priests and doctors' opinions, whether
they come through a physician, minister or your friend. For if
any person tells you anything and gives you an opinion, which if
believed makes you worse, then beware of such whitened
sepulchers or blind guides. They are wolves in sheep clothing,
clouds without rain, hypocrites prowling around to devour. You
remember what Jesus told his disciples about such a class. So
when they come with long hypocritical faces and in whining tones
and say, “You look very feeble, you are not so well,” etc., turn
from them.

These are the hypocrites that devour
widows' houses, for your science is your house, and as you are
all alone, you are a widow in the Science of Christ or Truth.
Now Christ visited the widow and fatherless in their distress
and told his disciples to do the same and keep them pure and
unspotted from the world or opinions. While you read this, I am
with you working in your belief or prison till I shall tear it
down and raise you up.

P. P. Quimby

Portland, May 3, 1861

Mrs. Wingate:

You seem by your letter to be surprised
by the course taken by the lady who answered your first letter,
but I wish you to understand that I was apprised of the answer
and it was written just according to my views, and if you could
not understand it, the fault is in you and not in her. She knows
the difficulty I have to encounter from persons who know me;
also that all I say to the well is Greek, and although they may
have respect for me as a man, they have none whatever in my
opinions as a physician. This places me in a very unpleasant
position.

When I first called on the lady, she was
very feeble and unable to walk, had been attended by the very
best physicians and believed in all the opinions of disease. Now
to have all her wisdom upset by me was more than she could
stand, and had it not been that I was a stranger and she dared
not set up an opinion in opposition to me, I could not have
cured her; but her strong desire to get well made her listen and
keep still till she began to take an interest in my theory. If
it had been my daughter, Augusta, I could not have cured her,
from the fact that she could not have had the confidence in me
that she would have had in a stranger. All of this she knew, and
when I told her that your mother and myself were brought up
together and that she knew me as a jeweller till I commenced
this business, she could see that your mother's confidence in
the medical opinions must be complete, and to have it all upset
by one for whose medical knowledge she had no respect, although
she might respect me as a man, would render it a hard case to
cure. All the above is in answer to your misunderstanding her
letter.

As regards your mother's case. I cannot
tell anything about her till I could see her. According to your
description, it must take a long time to cure her, if I could,
at all. You see how little you understand of my mode of
treatment, since you have said that it was all foolishness or
the same thing, and if you fail to see any sense in what the
lady wrote, how do you think your mother can, when she never has
even been consulted in the case at all? So as I have said
before, my opinion is worth just as much as your question—that
is nothing at all. If I should sit by your mother and take her
feelings, then when I undertake to tell her how she has been
humbugged by the doctors, I should see how my ideas set on her
stomach, for she could not embrace my ideas just because I said
so. But I must labor long and hard to convince her so as to
change her mind and effect the cure. Therefore, if I was a
stranger whom she had just heard of, it would make a difference.
She will know nothing of what I have to contend with, but I do,
and so does the lady who wrote the letter to you. If you can
find out anything by this I shall be glad.

Should I be in Bangor at any time, I
would be happy to call and see your mother, or if she would be
in Belfast when I go home, I would see her with pleasure. But I
could not go to Bangor, leaving my business here, without
charging twenty dollars and all my expenses. But if I happen to
visit your city I will call with pleasure, if she wishes me to,
not otherwise. I cannot cure a person on another's
recommendation. If you wish me to see your mother, I must see
her at her own request and not on your account. I will let her
know when I shall be in Belfast if she wishes. I go Friday and
return Monday, and that would give me ample time to see what I
can do. I will now close, wishing you a quiet state of mind
while you read this letter. It may be of service to you in the
day of trouble. So wishing you good-bye,

I remain,
P.P.Q.

Portland, May 9th, 1861

To Mr. ______

I will say in answer to your letter that
it is impossible to give any correct opinion in regard to your
wife's case, nor do I wish to give any encouragement that I may
afterwards regret. I know the sick, like a drowning man, are
ready to catch at a straw and this places them and their friends
in the hands of all kinds of quackery. They are not the judges
of their own case from the fact that health is all they want and
money to them is nothing in comparison to it. This I know from
experience and when they compare their cases with others the
comparison will not hold good. I have been deceived by the sick,
not knowing anything about their case except from their own
account. I have advised some not to come; from the description
of their cases and on sitting with them, I have found their
trouble amounted to a mere nothing. I have advised others to
come and found them far worse than I expected, then felt
concerned for advising them to come. So I have concluded to let
people take their chance and I do the best I can.

Now in regard to my going to Chicago, I
am not in a situation to leave here at present as I have as many
patients as I can attend to, and my expenses here amount to not
less than $5.00 a day, which goes on, whether I am in town or
not, and my business varies from twelve to twenty a day;
therefore I cannot live on uncertainties. If I were certain of
curing your wife and others, that would alter the case, but the
uncertainty I do not wish to risk, nor can you, lest I should
fail. I do not wish your wife to come here unless you feel as
though there was a fair chance for her recovery. Mrs. Ware might
be of some service to you; she, having some ideas of my cures,
might be a better judge than you or your wife, but if you feel
inclined to come this way, then I would do the very best I
could. If your wife would write me the facts of her case, I will
devote one hour to her and send her an account of her case. Then
she may feel better satisfied what course to pursue.

P. P. Quimby

Portland, May 10th, 1861

To Mrs. Ferrell:

Yours of the 9th was received and I will
sit down and try my best to relieve your right side and hope I
shall be able to affect it. Be assured I shall not forget you,
but shall have a dutiful care over you and encourage you through
your trouble till you can see out of it and feel that your
health is out of danger. Your cough is the effect of your
health, throwing off the morbid state of your system and of
course it makes you feel very bad. I am very sorry that I can't
stop your cough at once, but so it is, and I will do my best to
stop it. You see how my patients hold me to my promises.

You say in your letter that I told you so
and so, and you hold me to my promise just as though I would
forget you, if I had not promised that you would get well. Now
these promises are the very thing I am trying to get rid of, for
when you promise a child anything on condition, they never think
of the obligation to their parent, but claim the reward. So it
is with all my patients. It sometimes makes me smile to see how
artful they will be to get me to make a promise and when I do
it, it seems as that was all, and they never think that they
have anything to do for themselves. This is so common among the
sick that I have become very cautious how I promise, for if I do
not fulfill my promises, they are sure to remind me of it. It
often makes me feel as though they thought me to blame for not
fulfilling my promise. And I really feel guilty myself, for I
believe that our minds are under some wisdom, from a love [by]
the natural man’s wisdom, and when I mentally agree
unconditionally to do a thing, it annoys me much if I fail to do
it.

Now I know you as Mrs. Ferrell; do not
hold me as P. P. Quimby responsible to stop your cough. But this
sick idea does hold me to my promise, so I will try my best to
fulfill it. In doing so, I must hold you, not Mrs. F but the
sick idea, to its promise. And for fear you may forget, I will
just remind Mrs. F what the sick idea promised on her part. It
was that she would keep up good courage and not believe in what
anyone said and not be afraid if she coughed a little but keep
calm and cheerful. Now, if I hear about you complaining about
your cough and getting low spirited, I shall tell you of it, and
hold you to your bargain. You see you are bound to keep the
peace and to do all that is right, so that your health may come,
and you may once more rejoice. Now I think I have sat with you
some time, and this contract, I want you to read now and then,
and I will sit and listen when you are reading it, and I think
we will get along first rate.

So good night.

Yours etc.

P. P. Quimby

Portland, Aug. 9, 1861

To Mrs. L. Emerson:

In your letter you have saved me the
trouble of finding out your case myself by stating your
feelings; so as I have your symptoms before me, I will try to
affect you as much as I am able to.

I will say that it is hard labor on my
part to sit and take a person's symptoms at a distance, and as
my time is so much occupied, I cannot absent myself from my
business to do so. But since, by sending your symptoms, you have
saved me that labor, I will say a word to you while I am trying
to affect you.

You say that if you were not able to
reward me, you have no doubt that the Lord will in the world to
come. So far as your honesty goes, I have no doubt but that you
think so. I would rather trust to that than to any Lord of any
world to come that I know of. I have no confidence in this God
of man's invention. He asks too much of man and never pays. He
is too much like a man; in fact he is the embodiment of man's
opinions. Just look at the absurdity of what you say, and it is
what we all often say, and yet it contains no wisdom at all.

You say that if I should help you, you
cannot pay me; God will reward me in the world to come. Suppose
there is another world and I should not go there for twenty
years. You don't suppose the Lord will look me up when he has
credited me for curing you? And of course, I should not put in a
claim myself, so I rather think it will all be forgotten. I have
lost all confidence in the God of such opinions.

I will give you a description of the God
I worship. He has respect for persons. He is a God of love and
truth. He feels our misery and administers to our wants. He
never keeps any accounts but pays me my wages as soon as they
are earned. So if I help you, my God is your God, and to do good
to myself is to do good to you as far as lies in my power. So my
God is in me, and His rewards are with Him. If I do a good act
He pays me down, for He does not need to have any account with
man. He has enough to pay all His debts, and if I neglect to
fulfill my part, after I know and acknowledge it, I shall surely
get my punishment. All this is the other world, not the world of
opinions, for that world must be destroyed. God, and all the
world of progression and science can never be destroyed, for it
never had a beginning and therefore cannot end.

This is the world I believe in. If I help
you, my God rewards me, for the reward is in the act. It is as
much my gain as yours. To make you happy makes me so, and if I
help you and make you happy, you of course share your happiness
with me.

I will stop till I learn if you get any
better and which God you think the most of.

P.P.Q.

Portland, Sept. 12, 1861

To Mr. Capen:

Your letter was received, and in it you
say your wife was affected somewhat as I said she would be, and
now you ask me if I think she should come to Portland, that I
could help her knees. Now sir, my cures depend a great deal on
the confidence of my patients, and if they think I have a power,
then of course I do not know any more about it than they do. If
it is from God or the Devil, I am but an instrument in their
hands and give them the credit if they cure through me, and if
they fail, lay the blame also on them.

I, as a man, cannot give an opinion of
what the Lord or the Devil does through me towards curing
disease. This is one of the absurdities of the world. They admit
that I do not know anything about this power, as they call it,
and then next ask me to give an opinion of what I can do, thus
depriving me of any wisdom and then expecting me to give an
opinion that makes me responsible for the Devil's or God's acts.
Now Sir, I will place your wife's case before you in a sensible
manner so that you shall not be deceived and let you decide
about her coming by your own and her judgment.

She has been here and I tried to affect
her after the manner that I do everyone, that is, appealing to
her common sense. I do not assume any wisdom from God or from
the Devil or from Spirits, but I try to show that disease is one
of the phenomena of our belief, and to correct the belief, I
change the mind of the patient. Their wisdom is then attached to
my ideas of truth and this is the cure.

Now to get a person to come to me by
holding out some inducement or promise in one hand and taking
money in the other is selfish and hypocritical. If the patients
have confidence in me they would not wish me to coax them. Jesus
said, if the sheep knew the voice of the Shepherd, they would
follow him. So I say, if the sick knew me, they would not want
me to hold out inducements to cure them, but they would coax me
instead of my coaxing them. This puts me in a position I do not
like, and your wife is also in a bad position. Just let me make
an illustration that will show how we both stand.

Suppose I am in a prison, and your wife
has the name of getting people out. Now I know this, and I know
that if I make my case known to her, she will do the best she
can to get me out; and should she fail, it would not be from any
neglect of hers. Now I send her a letter saying that if she
thinks she can get me out, I should like to have her try. Do you
think she would be induced to make much effort? You can answer.
Suppose I believe that if I could only get her interested in my
case she would get me clear. Then I should not put any
restrictions on her but throw myself into her power and trust to
luck. In this way when she had me in her power, if she had any
sympathy, she would exert it for my happiness.

I told your wife that if she thought she
received any benefit, she might get better; but if I had to make
one single condition in the way of compromising to bring her
here, by which she would not come unless I did, I should not
have any faith at all. Therefore, I say if she comes, I shall
use all my wisdom to restore her to health and happiness.

P.P.Q.

LETTER TO A LADY IN VERMONT

Portland, 1861

Madam:

I received your letter and I will now
give you another sitting although I sat with you yesterday; but
perhaps you were not aware of it, so I will now try again.

I cannot help thinking but what I can
help your nose, for I believe it to be a curable case and I
shall make an effort to have this visit operate on your bowels
and change the current of the fluids in that direction. And I
will now work on your stomach and shall keep up my visits till I
produce an effect like a diarrhea and that I think will change
the nature of the trouble which is in the fluids. Please let me
know how I succeed. As I wrote you yesterday I will stop now
till I hear from you. Good night, 7:01 o'clock and just going to
my tea.

Perhaps it may seem strange that I was
not seen at the exact time of writing but this is the fact. I
have to produce a change in your system so that out of the
matter or mind of yourself the body is made and I in it, thus it
will take longer sometimes than it does others. If that lady is
still with you I will try and make myself appear to her eyes
next Sunday between 7 and 8 o'clock.

P. P. Quimby

[Extract from a letter from
the above lady in Vermont to Dr. Quimby]

Last Friday evening, Oct. 3rd, between 7
and 10 o'clock, mother and a niece of hers, who is here on a
visit, were sitting together talking, and this lady says she saw
you standing by mother, about to lay your hand on her head. Just
at that moment mother left the room before her friend had told
her what she saw, so your visit was interrupted. What was quite
strange was that this lady described some of your
characteristics in looks and appearance very accurately,
although you have never been described to her. Mother wishes to
know if you were really here in spirit at that time.

Portland, Dec. 7, 1861

Miss Longfellow:

Your letter was received, but my
engagements have been such that I have not had time to give my
attention to your case until now. Although we have lived side by
side ever since we were children, we have been ignorant of that
power or science that is necessary to smooth our ruffled path as
we travel along the road to wisdom, whence no child of science
ever returns to his former home of ignorance and superstition.
You and I have a power called the inner man by the ignorant, but
its true name is wisdom or progression. This is the child of
God, and although at first it is almost without an identity,
this little wisdom implanted in this earthly man or idea is held
in ignorance till some higher wisdom frees it from its prison.

You remember when your little pupils
would stand by your side looking up to you for wisdom to satisfy
their desires. You with your power like Moses went before them
leading them through the sea of ignorance, they following your
light as a pillar of fire, and in the clouds of darkness your
light sprang up. As you traveled along, they murmuring and
complaining, you like Moses fed them with the bread of science
and eternal life. You smote the rock of wisdom that followed
them and they drank of the waters that came out of your teaching
and this rock or wisdom was Christ. You have a teacher as well
as I that goes before us teaching us Science, and we become the
child of the one we obey. You, like Moses, held up the serpent
of ignorance before your little pupils and all who looked upon
your explanation and understood were healed of their disease or
ignorance; but the murmuring of your pupils would make you
nervous and although you, like Moses on Mount Pisgah, could see
the promised land, your heart failed you and you sank down in
despair. In your discontented state of mind you call on your
comforter, as Job did, but no answer returned from your doctors
or spiritual advisers, who being blind guides find you like the
man going down to Jericho and fall upon you and rob you of all
your wisdom. So here you are a stranger among thieves, cast into
prison by the very ones you have always taken for your leaders
on the road to health; you are bound with bands, sick and with
no hope of ever being set at liberty.

Now your belief is like a bark and your
wisdom attached to it, on the water of this world, for water is
an emblem of error so that the medical wisdom or ocean is where
your bark seems to be moored. Here you are tossed to and fro,
sometimes expecting to be lost, while the winds of spiritualism
are whistling in your ear till it shakes the bark to which your
wisdom is attached, and the heavens are dark and the light of
wisdom extinguished in the opinions or waves of the medical
science.

As you are tossing to and fro you see me
coming. When I say “me,” I mean Science in P.P.Q., not the
P.P.Q. that you used to see but the wisdom in a body, not of
flesh and blood but a body as it pleases and to every science
its own body. Your body or bark is of this world and your wisdom
is in it, and I have to come through your wisdom to get you
clear of your enemies. So you may look out of the window of your
bark while reading this and you will see me coming on the water
of your belief saying to spiritualism and the waves of the
medical faculty, “Be still, and I will come on board of your
bark and still your fears and return you once more to your own
house whence you have been decoyed by these blind guides.”

As disease is in accordance with the laws
of man, a penalty is attached to every act so that everyone
found guilty must be punished by the law. As you are accused of
a great many transgressions, your punishment is greater than you
can bear, so you sink under your trouble. I appear in your
behalf to have you tried by the laws of your own country, not by
the laws of these barbarians. So I will read over the indictment
that stands against you. Here it is: you are accused of
dyspepsia, liver complaint, nervousness, sleepless nights, weak
stomach, palpitation, neuralgia, rheumatism, pains through your
back and hips, lameness and soreness, want of action in the
stomach, etc. What say you to this indictment? Are you guilty or
not guilty? You say, “guilty.” But as I appear on your behalf, I
deny that you are guilty of the evils which cause this
punishment. I want you to have a fair trial before the judge of
truth and disease, and if you have disobeyed any law of God or
Science, you must answer to Science, not to man. I will call on
the hypocrite or doctor who goes around devouring widows' houses
and for a few dollars has got the people into trouble from which
they cannot get out. He says you have all the above diseases.

On cross-examination when asked how he
knows, he says, you told him. This is all the proof that he or
any other doctor can bring. So by their false testimony you have
been condemned for believing a lie, that you might be sick. Now
as your case is one of a thousand, I have only to say a few
words to your wisdom as judge. All disease is only the effect of
our belief. The belief is of man, and as Science sees through
man's belief, it destroys the belief and sets the soul or wisdom
free.

I will now sum up the evidence. You have
listened to the opinions of the doctors, who are blind guides
crying peace, peace, till you have embraced all their wisdom.
This has produced a stagnation in your system and what their
ignorance has not done, the spiritualists have tried to do. So
between them both you are a prisoner and in the same state as
the people were in the days of Jesus when he said to them,
“Beware of the doctrines of the Scribes and Pharisees, for they
say and do not; they bind burdens on you that they cannot
explain.”

This keeps you nervous. So awake from
your lethargy and come to the light of wisdom that will teach
you that man's happiness is in himself, his life is eternal;
this life is wisdom and as wisdom is progression, its enemy is
ignorance. So seek wisdom and believe no man's opinion, for
these opinions make you nervous. This causes a heat to go to
your head making your head feel heavy and producing a dullness
over your eyes, in fact, causes all your bad feelings, not that
you have any disease independent of your mind, but your mind is
matter, not wisdom.

So if I can lift your wisdom above the
error or mind, then you will be free. But now this nervous heat
is all through you and comes to the surface. When the cold
strikes you, it chills you. This you take for a low state of the
blood. But it is like a stagnation of your own self, not being
able to explain the phenomena that you are affected by. As you
read this it will excite you to understand it. This is like a
little leaven that is put into your bread or belief, and it will
work till it affects the lump and causes you to feel as though
you had a very bad cold. It will work upon your system and
affect your bowels, causing a diarrhea and also affecting the
water.

Then you may know that your cure is at
hand. So do not despair, only remember the signs of the times
and pray that your flight may not be in the night nor on the
Sabbath day when you are at meeting. So keep on the lookout and
I think you will be better. If so, let me know. When you read
this letter I am with you and you will think strange, for it
will produce some strange sensations on your mind, sometimes joy
and sometimes grief. But it is all for the best. So keep up good
courage and I will lead you along through the dark valley of the
shadow of death and land you safe in that land of Science where
disease never comes.

I will stop now, but remember that as
long as you read this and drink in these words, you do it in
remembrance of me, not P.P.Q., but Science, till your health
comes. I will leave you now and come again and lead you till you
can go alone. If you will see fit to show this to Julia H. when
you read it, we shall all be together, and you know what the
truth says: that when two or three are gathered together in
Science, Truth or Wisdom will be there and bless and explain to
them.

P.P.Q.

Portland, Dec. 16, 1861

Miss B.:

Yours of the 7th is received containing
$2.00 as a fee for my services on yourself. As you have shown a
spirit of sympathy that I never have received before, I
certainly shall not prove myself one who will not return to
another as I would that another should do to me. So I receive
your two dollars sent in hope of a relief and return your money,
believing it came from one who is as ready to give as to
receive. I believe if two persons agree in one thing sincerely,
independent of self, it will be granted.

I will now use my skill as far as I am
able to correct your mind in regard to your trouble. The heat
you speak of is not a rush of blood to the head but is caused by
a sensation on your mind like some trouble. This causes a
weakness at times at the pit of your stomach. The heat in the
second stomach causes a pressure on the aorta which makes the
heart beat very rapidly at times. This you take for palpitation
and it causes a flash or heat, which of course you take for a
rush of blood to the head. But it is not so; it is the fluids.
As the clouds in the skies change when the wind blows, so the
fluids under the skin change at every excitement. The skin being
transparent reveals the color; this annoys you and the false
idea that is in the blood keeps up the fire. Now just take in
your mind the spine as a combined lever of three parts, and you
will see how to correct your form so as to ease the pressure on
the aorta. Now imagine yourself sitting in a chair with the
lower level or spine at right angles with your limbs. This
relieve the stomach, take the pressure from the aorta and put
out the fire so there can be no heat. This will produce a change
in your feelings and the change is the cure.

If you will sit down on Sunday evening, I
will try to straighten you up so as to relieve that feeling. I
will try to exert my power on you and if you feel that I am
entitled to anything in the shape of a gift, it will be
received, if ever so trifling. Your sincerity towards me
interests my sympathy in you, and if I relieve you, I shall be
very glad. You have taken the way to make me try my best. This
is true sympathy to sympathize with those who make the first
sacrifice. It is of no consequence if it be one cent or one
hundred. The sacrifice is all. It shows your faith, and
according to your faith, so shall your cure be. This being a new
experiment, let me know how I succeed and if I change your mind,
the change is the cure. I send you one of my circulars which
will tell you more of my mode of treatment. It is easier to cure
than to explain to a patient at a distance. But I am sure of the
principle and feel confident that I shall sometimes cure at a
distance. For distance is nothing but an error that truth will
sometime explode. If my faith and your hope mingle, the cure is
the result, so I will give my attention to you as far as my
faith goes and shall like to hear how I succeed.

P.P. Quimby

PORTLAND ADVERTISER

International House, Feb.
13, 1862

Mr. Editor:

As you have given me the privilege of
answering an article in your paper of the 11th inst., where you
classed me with spiritualists, mesmerizers, clairvoyants, etc.,
I take this occasion to state where I differ from all classes of
doctors, from the allopathic physician to the healing medium.

All these admit disease as an independent
enemy of mankind, but the mode of getting rid of it divides them
in their practice. The old school admit that medicines contain
certain properties and that certain medicines will produce
certain effects. This is their honest belief. The homeopathic
physicians believe their infinitesimals produce certain effects.
This is also honest. But I believe all their medicine is of
infinitely less importance than the opinions that accompany it.

I never make war with medicine, but
opinions. I never try to convince a patient that his trouble
arises from calomel or any other poison but the poison of the
doctor's opinion in admitting a disease.

But another class, under cover of
spiritualism and mesmerism, claim power from another world, and
to these my remarks are addressed. I was one of the first
mesmerizers in the state who gave public experiments and had a
subject who was considered the best then known. He examined and
prescribed for diseases just as this class do now. And I know
just how much reliance can be placed on a medium; for, when in
this state, they are governed by the superstition and beliefs of
the person they are in communication with and read their
thoughts and feelings in regard to their disease, whether the
patient is aware of them or not.

The capacity of thought-reading is the
common extent of mesmerism. Clairvoyance is very rare and can be
easily tested by blindfolding the subject and giving him a book
to read. If he can read without seeing, that is conclusive
evidence that he has independent sight. This state is of very
short duration. They then come into that state where they are
governed by surrounding minds. All the mediums of this day
reason about medicine as much as the regular physician. They
believe in disease and recommend medicine.

When I mesmerized my subject, he would
prescribe some little simple herb that would do no harm or good
of itself. In some cases this would cure the patient. I also
found that any medicine would cure certain cases if he ordered
it. This led me to investigate the matter and arrive at the
stand I now take: that the cure is not in the medicine but in
the confidence of the doctor or medium. A clairvoyant never
reasons nor alters his opinion; but, if in the first state of
thought-reading he prescribes medicine, he must be posted by
some mind interested in it, and also must derive his knowledge
from the same source the doctors do.

The subject I had left me and was
employed by_________, who employed him in examining diseases in
the mesmeric sleep and taught him to recommend such medicines as
he got up himself in Latin; and as the boy did not know Latin,
it looked very mysterious. Soon afterwards he was at home again,
and I put him to sleep to examine a lady, expecting that he
would go on in his old way; but instead of that, he wrote a long
prescription in Latin. I awoke him that he might read it; but he
could not. So I took it to the apothecary's who said he had the
articles and that they would cost twenty dollars. This was
impossible for the lady to pay. So I returned and put him asleep
again, and he gave his usual prescription of some little herb,
and she got well.

This, with the fact that all the mediums admit disease
and derive their knowledge from the common allopathic belief,
convinces me that if it were not for the superstition of the
people, believing that these subjects, merely because they have
their eyes shut, know more than the apothecaries, they could
make few cures. Let any medium open his eyes, and let the
patient describe his disease; then the medicine would do about
as much good as brown bread pills. But let the eyes be shut;
then comes the mystery. It is true they will tell the feelings,
but that is all the difference.

Now, I deny disease as a truth but admit
it as a deception, started like all other stories without any
foundation and handed down from generation to generation till
the people believe it, and it has become a part of their lives.
So they live a lie, and their senses are in it.

To illustrate this: suppose I tell a
person he has the diphtheria and he is perfectly ignorant of
what I mean. So I describe the feelings and tell the danger of
the disease and how fatal it is in many places. This makes the
person nervous, and I finally convince him of the disease. I
have now made one; and he attaches himself to it and really
understands it, and he is in it soul and body. Now he goes to
work to make it, and in a short time it makes its appearance.

My way of curing convinces him that he
has been deceived, and, if I succeed, the patient is cured. As
it is necessary that he should feel that I know more than he
does, I tell his feelings. This he cannot do to me, for I have
no fear of diphtheria.

My mode is entirely original. I know what
I say and they do not, if their word is to be taken. Just so
long as this humbug of inventing disease continues, just so long
the people will be sick and be deceived by the above-named
crafts.

P. P. Quimby

Portland, Feb. 22nd, 1862

Mr. Carter

Dear Sir:

I was very glad to receive your letter of
Dec. 1st but since then have been too busy to answer it until
now. And now I scarcely know how to commence, knowing that I am
about to tread on holy ground, and feel like Moses who viewed
the promised land lying before him but could not enter with all
his errors, so he saw for others what he was not permitted to
enjoy in the natural man.

This truth that I practice is as plain to
me as mathematics, but the developing of that science depends
upon the progression of all other improvements, for if the world
was ignorant like the savages, that wisdom called mathematics
would still exist but their darkness could not see it. So as the
light of God or wisdom springs up, man learns the truth and
applies it to the phenomena of his day so it can be understood.
This we call mathematics or God's wisdom revealed to man. I
think that all controversies in the world are in matter, and man
has attached himself to the idea of matter and lives and dies in
it till the light of wisdom opens his eyes to the truth that his
life is in this great light that sees matter as nothing but
shadows.

I will try to illustrate my ideas by a
parable. You know what the phenomenon called mesmerism is.
Clairvoyance is perfect light. Matter is annihilated except as
it is admitted. Thought-reading is another state in matter, like
darkness, so that thought-readers see or feel by the light of
another, while clairvoyance sees by its own light. Our senses
are in one or the other of these states of light and darkness.
The separation of these states has always been the great
problem. They who were sitting in darkness saw this light spring
up, but as the prince of darkness had sway, they crucified the
light. Now, the world attaches their senses to the thing they
can feel and see, but Jesus attached his to the light, so that
his light was in their error and they saw it not.

By this time I hear you say, Show me this
light or truth and it will satisfy me. I answer, Have I not sat
by you and told you how you suffered and yet you cannot see me?
The light of the body or wisdom is the eye, and if your wisdom
is all light, your light is all wisdom, but if your light is
darkness or thought-reading, it is darkness to wisdom. Such is
this to those who cannot understand, but I feel as though you
said, “I understand that.” How do I show to the world my light?
For a light under a bushel gives no light to those outside. So
to let your light shine, you must make some physical
demonstration of it.

When I sit down by a patient, their
thought is their wisdom or opinions and to me there is no light
in them. My light or wisdom sees through their darkness or
belief and I, knowing that their sufferings are the effect of
this world's wisdom, take them by the hand and guide them by my
light till I raise them from the dead or error into the light of
science or heaven. This is my heaven. My hell is where I was and
where all others are till they come to a knowledge of this great
truth, that man is outside of matter. When he knows this, he
cuts himself clear and floats in the ocean of light where matter
is to him a shadow, moved around by a wisdom attached to it, and
their ignorance knows not that they are not of the matter but
outside. I will illustrate.

Suppose I create a dog in my mind and
mesmerize a person till I make him see it and finally I succeed.
Now his senses or light is in my idea—the dog—he sees it but
does not see the creator. And seeing the dog with life, he of
course thinks the life is in the dog. If he never comes out of
that state, then the dog follows him; and if I present it to
him, then to himself he has a dog, but to his neighbors he is
insane. . . . All the while I know I am the author. Suppose I
call the great God of all: Clairvoyant. All matter to him is
nothing.

P. P. Quimby

EXTRACT FROM A LETTER

Portland, Feb., 1862

To Mrs. Woodward:

I will class all people who believe in
another world in this way. They all believe that mind is one
thing and spirit is the highest wisdom known to the Christian
world. As mind is, then man's spirit is that part that lives
after the mind is dead or gone.

Mind, matter and spirit are all one and
the same, like the lamp, the oil and the light. The lamp is the
body, the oil is the mind, and the light is the spirit. So when
the oil is out, the spirit is dead, and this is the end of the
religious world.

Now this is the way I divide man. The
lamp is matter, the oil is mind, and the light is the wisdom or
spirit of the oil. The wisdom that carries the lamp is God, and
you will see that it is separate and apart from the other
combinations of the lamp so that when we see the lamp, the
wisdom that directs it is out of sight. This wisdom is what
guides the sick. It trims your lamp and furnishes it with the
oil or truth so that when the cry of the bridegroom or truth
comes, your lamp may be filled and trimmed; and you will not be
gone to borrow oil lest he comes when you are after oil, and he
passes along and the door is shut. So do not get into your lamp
but keep outside. Do not put your light under a bushel but on
top. The light of truth or wisdom is like the sun; that of
error, like the moon in the firmament of mind.

P.P.Q.

Portland, Apr. 27th, 1862

To Mrs. Marsh:

Your daughter's letter was received and
it gave me much joy to hear that he [a different patient] was
still going ahead. For you, I cannot say that the news was so
gratifying, but I must say I think it is all for the best. We
know that God sometimes uses rather strong means to accomplish
his end; this is according to the Christian belief but I don't
believe that my God ever uses any means. He is the end to
obtain, and the means of obtaining to this end everyone tried to
find. Man is the inventor of his own misery. Man's happiness is
not an element but is the reaction of his own belief or acts. If
you throw up a stone into the air it must come down, so the
reaction returns with the same power that it receives. So if I
do you an evil, the evil will return on me, but God is not in
the good or evil. He is in that wisdom that measures out to
everyone just according to his acts.

God can't be seen by the natural eye, but
He is seen by the sympathy of our acts. When man acts, he either
acts according to happiness or misery for the reward is in the
act, and the knowledge of this is God. So God is in us and we
are in our acts. And God won't censure man's acts unless man
censures them himself. We too often mistake our lives for some
other person in this way. If I tell you not to eat or drink this
or that and you believe me, when you really believe you are me
and not yourself, and you attach your senses to this belief and
all the misery follows for the superstitious man, for God is not
in an opinion. So when the Minister tells you that this is wrong
and this is right, he deceives himself and makes the word of God
of no effect, for God can't give an opinion. And the minister
can't give any proof that he ever got the truth from God but
man. Now all such foolish beliefs make one nervous, for you are
bound, yet you were not born a slave, for God does not enslave
anyone. But man is a slave to his own beliefs and forges his own
fetters.

So take heed that none of these blind
guides shall deceive you by their smooth words. But keep your
light shining so when they come and commence to give an opinion,
ask for proof and they will leave you. Then I will come to you
and greet you and try to explain to you this truth that will set
you free from this nervousness, for it is the fruits of your old
errors. I told you that your body was like a picture which was
given to you by a friend, but it has been covered up by opinions
of the priests till you have lost all interest in it. They have
made you believe that it is of no value, and as you set a great
value on it, you grew nervous. Now I want to show you that the
value is in the picture and then you will respect the donor who
is the Father of all gifts. But the blind guides or devils want
to destroy your happiness and get the picture. So remember what
I tell you and read this and I will be with you and make you
quiet till your health comes.

Yours, etc.
P. P. Quimby

EXCERPT FROM AN UNDATED
LETTER TO A PATIENT

What is your true position in regard to
the truth or spirit world, or the errors of this world or that
feeling that keeps you in a quandary all the time? It seems as
though there were two powers acting upon you at the same time
and it seems as though I must put a false construction on the
one that you fear the most. The one you fear is from itself. The
fear of the construction that arose from some sensation that
contained no knowledge nor harm but was a shock that disturbed
your mind. This brought your mind like the earth in a fit state
to receive direction from the power of this world of flesh and
blood or the direction of the truth, and as the natural man or
the knowledge of the world has governed your thoughts, you have
been kept ignorant of your true position which is to destroy the
enemy of the higher man or put it into subjection to the
spiritual man or truth. This is the state of your mind at this
time.

When you think of going anywhere, you
feel that if I could go with you all would go well; but if you
go alone, you take no interest in the amusements, for it is
under the direction of this world and you have arrived at this
state where you can foresee a higher state of mind than this
world enjoys. But you cannot separate the one from the other
yet. You will soon. I saw the two states last night in the hall
and you might have noticed it in those girls. My patients all
feel a sort of attachment to me and I could see the same feeling
drawing to you. My patients feel my influence in you and like
the children of Israel they want a leader which they will find
in you. Those two influences are acting upon you all the time.

P. P. Quimby

To Mrs. A.C.B.:

In answer to your letter I will say that
it is impossible to give an opinion of a case till I know
something about it independent of my natural senses. I, of
myself, cannot take another's feelings. Therefore my opinion is
nothing.

When I sit by a patient, their feelings
affect me and the sensation I receive from their mind is
independent of their senses, for they do not know that they
communicate any intelligence to me. This I feel, and it contains
the cause of the trouble, and my Wisdom explains their trouble;
and my Wisdom explaining the trouble, the explanation is the
cure. You must trust in that Wisdom that is able to unlock any
error that your wisdom can lock, so search into the error and
you will find that your key can unlock the mystery and loose
your bands. I will assist you all in my power.

P.P.Q.

Portland

To Mr. A. A. Atwood:

In reply to your questions I will say to
you that I am unwilling to take charge of a person afflicted
with fits, from the effect upon my own system. In regard to the
blind, I should not recommend anyone like your description to
come to see me for I have no faith that I could cure him. If a
man is simply blind, I have no chance for a quarrel, for we both
agree in that fact. But if a person has any sickness which he
wants cured and is partially blind besides, then I might affect
his blindness, but that is thrown in. I never undertake to cure
the well and if a man is blind and satisfied, I can't find
anything to talk about. For if I undertake to tell him anything,
he says, Oh! I am all right, but my eyes, so he is spiritually
blind and cannot see that his blindness ever had a beginning. So
it is hard work to get up a controversy and therefore I refuse
to take such cases till my popularity is such that my opinion is
of some force to such persons.

For opinions of popular quacks are law
and gospel about blindness, and so long as the blind lead the
blind, they will both be in the ditch. Thirdly, you ask me if I
can cure anyone from using intoxicating liquors. This is a hard
question to answer, for it involves considerable. If you drink
it is not my business; neither is it yours if I drink, for
neither can set up a standard to judge the other by. I judge no
man. Judgment belongs to God or Science and that judges right,
for it contains no opinion. Giving an opinion is setting up a
standard to judge your neighbor by, and this is not doing as you
would be done by. The true science judges in this way. If you
are sick and come to me, if I tell you how you feel, this is
doing as you would like to be done by; there is no discord. Now
you come to me, a criminal or debtor, accused of disobeying some
opinion of man which you will not accept and worship. You are
accused, condemned, and cast into prison; your punishment is
your feelings. Now science, being a higher court than man's
opinions, man appeals to that court. So he is brought before me
and upon examination, I find that he has committed no offense
against science and is not liable to their standard. I plead his
case and show that all his acts were committed in self defense.
His drinking is the effect of something he is accused of, and he
takes to the cup to drown his sorrow. When I convince him how he
has been deceived by his tormentors and explain the truth, he
comes to his reason and abandons his old associates who have
been the means of all this trouble. If he likes smoking and
drinking, he is satisfied and wants no physician. But if sick,
and I find that liquor is his enemy, then it is my duty to tell
him so. And if I convince him, he has no more difficulty in
cutting his acquaintance than he would an old friend whom he
discovered plotted against his life; one case must be proved.

P. P. Quimby

Portland

To Mrs. Doland:

I will try to drive these devils away
that trouble you, but I must say, they originated in this world
or matter. They are not the work of God, but they are the
invention of man. God is not sin or error. We often hear persons
say, while we are looking at nature, that we see God in
everything. This to me is all folly.

If you should see an orange and had not
the sense of smell, nor had intelligence; but smelling the
orange and knowing it contained a peculiar odor, you worship the
orange for what it contains. So it is with God. We see fields,
streams and flowers, and all nature seems delighted to spring
from its cold prison. We are not aware of any wisdom in the
flowers nor grass, nor in anything that hath life; yet they all
have their peculiar ways of expressing their feelings to the
great wisdom of all, not by language, but in their own way.
Their life is the father of all life, and when the cold breezes
of November come, they leave the icy tenement of the world of
matter and live again in a sphere far superior to this world of
matter. Not losing their identity, they return in the spring and
appear as though nothing had happened.

To the observer, the flowers seen in June
are not the flowers of the next June, but yet they are. So man,
like the plant, with one exception, is the higher element of
God's wisdom. He partakes of the mathematical in man that plans
and directs all. He is introduced into this world with the
highest order of God's wisdom, not being perfect, for some cause
not known to himself. He is left to work out his problems for
his own happiness. So he becomes an inventive being, and as he
becomes ambitious, he sets up standards of right and wrong and
wants everyone to obey his peculiar notions. This makes war
between truth and error. Error is arbitrary and wants to bind
truth. Truth is gentle and never binds at all but, like a
shepherd, leads his flock.

Error is always lying about the truth and
trying to confine it. Every idea has an atmosphere around it,
and in it the truth is confined.

Disease is the invention of man, and like
all inventions of man, according to our belief, liable to
perish. So decomposition is always taking place in every variety
of matter. The destruction of anything we have an interest in
affects us, just according to our belief.

Your body being matter is liable to the
same destruction that any other matter is. To you it is a
vineyard and you enjoy the fruits of your own vines. Now to be a
good husbandman is to keep all the trees or ideas in good health
so that no crooked branches should shoot out to injure the
growth of the rest. The idea of rheumatism is the fruit of a
tree called trouble that grows in the most barren part of the
soil . . .

P. P. Quimby

TO A PATIENT

Mrs. Norcross

Madam:

Yours of the ... is at hand. But a lack
of faith on my part to describe your case and explain my ideas
to you so you could rightly comprehend my meaning is my only
excuse for not writing before. But thinking you would expect an
answer, I now sit down to talk with you a short time.

After reading your letter I tried to
exercise all the power I was master of to quiet and restore your
limb to health. But to give a satisfactory answer to you or
myself was more than I was capable of. I therefore will disturb
your mind or fluids once more and try to direct them in a more
healthy state by repeating some of my ideas which I repeated to
you when here.

You know I told you that mind was the
name of something, and this something is the fluids of the body.
Disease is the name of the disturbance of these fluids or mind.
Now as the fluids are in a scalding state, they are ready to be
directed to any portion of the body. You remember I told you
that every idea contained this fluid, and the combination varied
just according to the knowledge or idea of disease.

I will explain. Two persons are told they
are troubled with scrofula. One does not know anything about it
and has never heard of the disease, is as ignorant as a child.
No explanation is given to either. The other is well posted up
in regard to all the bad effects of this disease. Now you can
readily see the effect on the minds of these two persons. One is
not affected at all till he is made acquainted with the case,
while the other one's mind or fluids are completely changed and
combined, so all that is necessary is to give direction and
locate the disease in any part of the body.

I think I hear you say that a child can
be troubled with scrofula, and they have no mind, as I said
before. Your mother probably changed the fluids of your body
when an infant or at any early age, and some circumstances
located it in your leg. Now as it is there, you want to know how
to get rid of it; and as it was directed there through
ignorance, you can't get rid of it without some knowledge.

Now as this disturbance comes like a
fright or sensation, it is to be understood as a fright. Now as
disease is looked upon as a thing independent of the mind, the
mind is disturbed by every sensation produced upon the senses,
and the soul stands apart from the disturbed part and grieves
over it as a person grieves over any trouble independent of the
body. Now to cure you, you must come with me to where the
trouble is, and you will find it to be nothing but a little
heated fluid just under the skin, and it is kept hot and
disturbed by your mind being misrepresented.

Now I believe that I can impart something
from my mind that can enter into that distressed state of the
fluids and change the heat and bring about a healthy state. I
shall often try to produce a cooling sensation on your limb, at
other times a perspiration so as to throw off the surplus heat.
If I succeed in helping or relieving you, please let me know.
But do not expect another explanation, for this has made me half
insane. If you think you would improve faster by coming to
Belfast, please let me know, and I will get you a private
boarding house if desired. I think I can hear you say by this
time that your limb feels better; if so, I shall be satisfied. I
will close my long epistle by wishing you a long life and a well
leg.

Miss B.:

Yours of the 7th is received and I am
glad to learn that I have relieved your mind by “my power,” as
you call it. But you misunderstand my power. It is not power but
Wisdom. If you knew as much as I do about yourself, you could
feel another's feelings, but here is the trouble. What people
call “power” I call Wisdom. Now if my wisdom is more than yours,
then I can help you, but this I must prove to you. And if I tell
you about yourself what you cannot tell me, then you must
acknowledge that my wisdom is superior to yours and become a
pupil instead of a patient.

I will now sit down by you and tell your
feelings. You may give your attention to me by giving me your
hand, be still, and look me in the eye. I will write down the
conversation that I hold with you while sitting by you.

You have a sort of dizzy feeling in your
head and a pain in the back part of the neck. This affects the
front part of the head causing a heaviness over the eyes. The
lightness about the head causes it to incline forward, bringing
the pressure on your neck just below the base of the brain, so
that you often find yourself throwing your head up to ease that
part of the head. This makes it heavy, so it bears on the
shoulders, cramps the neck, numbs the chest so that you give way
at the pit of the stomach and feel as though you wanted
something to hold you up. This cramps the stomach, giving you a
“gone feeling” at the pit of the stomach. This contraction
presses on the bowels and causes a full feeling at times and a
heaviness about your hips and a loggy feeling when you walk. Now
all these symptoms taken of themselves are nothing. But you have
had medical advice or have got from someone else an answer to
all these feelings. You are nervous. You have the heart
complaint. Your blood rushes to the head, and you are liable to
female weaknesses. Now take all these symptoms together and if
they would not make your face red, what would?

Listen to me and I will give an
explanation of all the above feelings. I must go back to the
first cause, say some years ago. I will not undertake to tell
just the cause but I will give you an illustration. Suppose I
(the natural man) were sitting by you and we were alone, and I
should go and fasten the door and go towards you and attempt to
seize hold of you. And if you asked me what I intended to do and
I should say, “Keep still, or I will blow your brains out,” you
would see this would frighten you. I think your heart would beat
as fast as it ever did. This explanation I do not say is true.
For I suppose a case, start contracts the stomach, the fright or
excitement heat, sets your heart beating, and throws the heat to
your head; this heat tries to escape out of the nose causing a
tickling in your nose and you often rub it because it itches and
feels hot. It then tries to escape through the passage to the
ears making your cheeks red and burn and causes a noise in your
ears sometimes. This after a while subsides, the stomach relaxes
and the heat passes down from the stomach into the bowels. . . .

Now follow the directions in the last
letter and relieve the pressure on the aorta. This will check
the nervous heat and relieve the excitement and then the heat
will subside. The color is in the surface of the skin and has
nothing to do with any humor or disease; it is nothing but
excitement. As I told you in my last, I will be with you when
you read the letters and you will feel a warm sensation pass
over you, like a breath. This will open the pores of the skin
and the heat will escape.

I send back the five dollars till the
cure is performed. I don't like to be outdone in generosity and
I am willing to risk as much as anyone in such a cause as this.
If I come off conqueror, then it will be time enough for you to
offer up a sacrifice. Till then, if I accept a gift, it is
without an equivalent on my part. I feel as certain of success
as you do, so I feel as though I run no risk. All I look for is
the cure. You ask if I give any medicine. The only medicine I
ever give is my explanation and that is the cure. In about a
week let me know how the medicine works. Hoping to hear good
news when next I hear from you, I remain, Your friend,

P. P. Quimby

Portland

To Mrs. Robinson

Madam:

Pardon me for addressing you on a subject
in which as a stranger I have no personal interest. Mrs. Green,
your mother, having been under my charge as an invalid, has
frequently spoken of you and your husband connected with some
trouble which I never asked her to explain. But from what little
I gathered from some spiritual communications she had from a
lady, if she may be so called, I felt as though there must be
something wrong. This medium was one, if I understood her right,
whom she consulted for her health. In the interview the idea of
the dead would come up, and as is usual in this mode of
practice, her husband came forward to give some ideas that might
be of some benefit to the medium, not to Mrs. G, for all these
communications are to settle some difficulty that neighbors get
up.

In the communication her husband
recommended me, saying I was a medium. This led her to call on
me for advice. As my mode of treating disease is entirely new to
the world, the spiritualists claim me as a medium. I deny this,
but believe that mind acts upon mind and that it is the living
and not the dead; so here is where we differ. When Mrs. G called
on me I think Mrs. Otis was present and I told her of some
things which I did not know before, and this gave her confidence
in me. Then she wished me to read some communications from her
husband and something connected with you and your husband, and
it seems to me that they were interested to make trouble, and I
told her so, but she thought not.

I will here say that whatever you may
think of your mother she is sincere in her motives but is, I
think, misled by some spirits that have flesh and blood who have
some motive for acting. She thinks your husband has a power over
you to make you do just as he chooses. This is her honest belief
and that contemptible woman holds out the idea that she can,
through the spirits, bring everything straight. As she has
confidence in me, she wishes me to influence you not to be
controlled by your husband. And I told her that I felt as there
must be some misunderstanding and advised her to go to your
place and have a fair explanation of all this trouble. For I
believe the medium knew what she wrote as well as I do, and
advised her to have no more to do with it.

But there is a combination of
circumstances, showing to me that she is under some influence
that is not for her happiness. So I told her I would try to
bring things right and I thought she would have a letter making
everything plain. This was three months ago, and Friday last she
called and said she had not received a letter. I noticed she
felt very badly and asked what she should do. I told her I would
write to you myself and then I could tell more about the case,
for I believe it was all a piece of deception on the part of the
medium, either instigated by her enemies or that she had been
deceived or misled by pretended friends and that the medium read
her thoughts. This is my reason for addressing you on a subject
in which I have no interest; it is to ferret out traitors who
are busy in making trouble. I have had some experience in
troubles of this kind where the spirits of the dead are called
up, and I know that this horrid belief has been the cause of
breaking up families, separating man and wife and setting mother
against daughter and every possible evil.

I am perfectly ignorant of the charges
against each other; I never asked her, I felt as though it was
none of my business. But from her honest conviction of being
right, I have no doubt that there have been persons who have got
from stories, which if the real truth could be known, do not
contain a single word of truth. Yet they are as true to her as
the very Bible she reads and takes for truth. To show you the
mind can be misled by these blind guides and deceived by these
communications and their bad effects, I will relate one instance
out of a dozen that I might give.

I was called to see a lady who had cut
her throat and after the deed was done, she was considered
insane. Her mother and husband were with her at the time I
visited her, although he had been away from her for three
months, from the fact that there was trouble between them. She
had become jealous of him and their children staying among the
neighbors, so he left. All this was done under the full belief
that it was true, and when I entered the room her mother pointed
to the husband saying, “He is the cause of all this trouble.”
Then his wife commenced abusing him violently. After hearing
these stories, I said, I see no reason for all this trouble; the
woman was insane and must have been so for some time, and now
they were all insane. I then commenced restoring the lady to her
reason and my effect upon her was such that I was obliged to
hold her. Then she clung to her husband, but in the course of
four or five hours I brought her to her senses and she fell
asleep. After she awoke she enquired for her husband. I told her
he had gone out. She wished to know why she could not live with
him. I said I knew of no reason. She said she had nothing
against him, that he had always treated her well, etc. It may
all be explained like this: she had become interested in
spiritualism and here was the result. My explanation of the
phenomena reconciled them and now they live happily together.

P. P. Quimby

Mr. J. Watts Esq.:

In the letter I wrote to you about my
coming to your place, I said nothing about my pay from the fact
that I knew you would know the person who wishes to see me,
neither did I want to give any idea in the papers, for if I
should, it would bring on such hard cases that it might upset my
plans.

My plan is this, to make some cure that
would give me a position in your place that can't be put down by
one or two failures. But if I open the door to all, I might
fail.

Again, the first impression lasts the
longest and I don't want to enter your service as one of Maine's
politicians entering Governor Fairfield's room to solicit an
office just as he entered, he stumped his toe and in he went
headlong, saying, your fearless hire lays before you. I don't
want to stumble against such ones at present. My object is to
make my profession have character and to do this it must be
respected, and if I don't respect it, I can't expect others
will.

Here is the difference between myself as
a man and my practice. My character speaks for itself and I am
judged according to my acts, like all others. But you know that
a profession has two identities: one is attached to the
profession and the other to the man. Now reverse the tables.
Take Dr. Wood of this place, say nothing about either character,
give me his professional character and attach it to my practice,
and give him my art or gift, as he would call it, and attach it
to his practice and then you can see popularity is in his
profession and not in his wisdom. But my wisdom has no character
but is a sort of power or gift. Here is where I stand; the
people will give me all the power but they won't the wisdom. You
know, to establish a standard like the one I am trying requires
more wisdom than Jeff Davis; one is based on one man's opinion
and the other is based on the fact that his opinion is faith.

The medical faculty's opinion is based on
the opinion of what they see of effect, they know not the cause;
mine is based on what I know of the cause, like action and
reaction. You know if you throw a ball in the air it will return
with just as much force as it received, so the answer was in the
action. So it is with all my practice.

The medical practice admits the ball
comes down but can't say but what it was in the air from the
beginning. Here is the difference: the medical profession sees
an eruption on the skin, here is the reaction. Now to account
for it is the point in dispute.

I feel the causes and effect in my own
person and the doctors don't feel either, but the effect on the
sufferers they see with their eyes to account for it in various
ways, but all admit that is nothing very marvelous, but it is
still a mystery. So their version reminds me of a story I will
relate here. In a town called Berklay in Massachusetts, a sea
captain knew that the inhabitants were very superstitious, so he
went to the barn and found an egg and took his pencil and wrote,
“Woe unto you Berklay folks.” The egg was found by a child and a
church meeting was called; so the parson opened the case by
expressing his opinion, and the deacon was called to give his
version on the phenomenon. He took the egg and examined it very
minutely, looked very wise and made this remark, that he had no
doubt it was the Lord's doing but that he had observed one very
important fact which was this: the Lord did not spell Berklay
right!

The doctors are making just such
observations all the time, never accounting for any phenomena,
but giving their opinion like the deacon, and there is just
about as much wisdom in one as the other.

Now all I do is to show the sick the
absurdity of both; this explains the cause and the effect being
in the cause, the wisdom regulates both.

P. P. Quimby

Portland

To Mr. W. S. Atkins:

I will now sit down to answer your letter
and will straighten you up as I used to. Remember the
illustrations I used to make to you and I will stir up your
ideas by referring to my theory. You want to know if I was in
earnest in regard to your learning. I was, but you nor anyone
else can learn of yourself, any more than a person can get
religion of himself. It must be the effect of a change of mind.
This you cannot understand, for your change of mind when you got
religion was the effect of error, not of truth. So you worship
you know not what. But I worship I know what, and, “Whom you
ignorantly worship, him declare I unto you.” This same Christ,
whom you think is Jesus, is the same Christ that stands at the
door of your dwelling or belief, knocking to come in and sit
down with the child of science that has been led astray by blind
guides into the wilderness of darkness. Now wake from your sleep
and see if your wisdom is not of this world. To be born again is
to unlearn your errors and embrace the truth of Christ; this is
the new birth, and it cannot be learned except by desire for the
truth of that Wisdom that can say to the winds of error and
superstition “Be still!” and they obey.

It is not a very easy thing to forsake
every established opinion and become a persecuted man for this
Truth's sake, for the benefit of the poor and sick, when you
have to listen to all their long stories without getting
discouraged. This cannot be done in a day. I have been twenty
years training myself to this one thing, the relief of the sick.
A constant drain on a person's feelings for the sick alters him,
and he becomes identified with the suffering of his patients;
this is the work of time. Every person must become affected one
way or the other, either to become selfish and mean so that his
selfish acts will destroy his wisdom or keep it under and let
his error reign, or his wisdom will become more powerful till it
will run away with his obligation to himself and family.

It is not an easy thing to steer the ship
of wisdom between the shores of poverty and the rocks of
selfishness. If he is all self, the sick lose that sympathy
which they need at his hand. If he is all sympathy, he ruins his
health and becomes a poor outcast on a cold uncharitable world.
For the sick can't help him and the rich won't. It is difficult
to steer clear and keep your health.